Airedale by Modine, the critical cooling specialists, has announced the completion of delivery of its largest ever bespoke free cooling chillers, each measuring a significant 22 meters long (73 feet), and housing 36 fans. The vast order, for an undisclosed data center operator, is believed to be one of the largest single colocation orders taken by Airedale in its 50-year history.
It consists of 21 super-sized chillers, two free cooling DeltaChill chillers (16 fans), 72 AireWall units, 12 SmartCool ONE chilled water downflow units, and crucially, for achieving the ultimate in system efficiencies, the Cooling System Optimiser, and an on-site building management system (BMS), offering an over-arching, automated optimization control package.
The data center company has partnered with Airedale as part of its drive to meet its stringent sustainability objectives as it seeks to employ the highest efficiency technologies on its 30MW campus. Working closely with the client, Airedale’s data center solutions engineering team has designed a larger derivative of their DeltaChill R32 free-cooling chiller, to deliver maximum efficiency to meet on-site cooling demands.
Alongside the 36 high-efficiency EC fans are 17 scroll compressors, selected due to their ability to deliver concurrent free cooling, maximizing partial and full free cooling availability. The 16 fan variants offer all the same efficiencies.
Acoustic packages have been applied to all chillers to ensure stringent noise constraints are met on-site. The units all feature integral harmonic filtration, to increase quality, reliability, and energy efficiency, by reducing loss in electrical components and delivering indirect energy savings. On such a large scale, these mitigations deliver tangible savings over the course of a year.
One of the key differentiators for Airedale is its ability to deliver a complete cooling solution, comprising not only high efficiency, free cooling chillers, but also the computer room air handlers (CRAHs), controls packages, and on-site project management and installation teams. This “One Airedale” approach allows for the units to work as a system, increasing the opportunities for marginal gains and system efficiencies.
Airedale Controls is renowned for its advanced system operations. The cooling system optimizer and on-site BMS work to deliver a fully automated system at both product and system levels, delivering optimal performance in response to conditions at detail and speed beyond that which a human operator could respond to.
Likewise, the control system’s ability to recognize patterns and identify potential issues before they occur adds an extra layer of redundancy to an already robust operation.
Airedale has a dedicated on-site management resource team that coordinates the project from start to finish, considering the timing, installation, and commissioning of the product.
Beyond product installation, Airedale’s unique, UK-wide team of 65 service and maintenance engineers is available 24/7, meaning clients can rest assured that should a system issue occur, expert engineering assistance is available.
Adam Yarrington, business unit director for Data Centers at Airedale said, “Delivering efficiencies that meet sustainability objectives and help us reduce the impact of mechanical cooling on our planet is something we care deeply about at Airedale and is something we have continually strived to do, since before legislations around this were introduced.”
Yarrington continued, “Working on a project of this complexity is really exciting for Airedale, as it allows us to demonstrate the scale of our capabilities, deliver meaningful efficiencies, and push our technology to deliver more, which is absolutely achievable when taking a whole system approach.”
He concluded, “We cannot disclose more detail about this, due to the sensitive nature of the work our client delivers, but we are delighted to have been able to partner with them on this project.”
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