Computer Room Air Conditioner Installation for Tronox
Overview:
Airkool was contracted to install new computer room air conditioning units for Tronox
Our Solution:
The existing systems (2No) were approx. 15yrs old, and were at the end of their ‘life expectancy’, 1No system had already failed, and was beyond economical repair, leaving the remaining system to cope with the cooling requirements of a server room, that is classed as a ‘critical area’.
The existing units were manufactured by Airedale, and although we did approach the original manufacturer for a replacement quote, we also reached out to a number of alternative manufacturers, of which CIAT (part of the Carrier Corp) were one, and offered a good solution, with equipment that could be replaced with minimum disruption to the client.
These new units were 2No CIAT Floor Mounted Duct Type Split Systems. These large internal units draw air in through the top of the unit, then after going through the cooling cycle, the ‘cool, conditioned’ air is delivered to the room underneath the raised floor, which has a number of supply floor grilles installed, which are strategically placed allowing the conditioned air to reach the specific area required, ensuring that the required optimum temperature is achieved quickly, and efficiently.
Outcome:
Due to the nature of not only the site, but the room in question, it was vitally important that all persons involved communicated well, from the initial design stage right through to commissioning.
This was achieved through numerous meetings, including on site, and teams.
Persons involved were not only senior members of the Tronox staff, but members of the IT Dept, the manufacturer, and Airkool.
The remit from Tronox was that they had to have a working system at all times whilst our works were underway.
We achieved this by putting a plan in place to replace 1No system at a time, starting with the system that had already failed, then once this had been replaced with the new CIAT system, we would have a ‘proofing period’ with both the new, and existing system working in tandem initially, then the existing system would be turned off to allow the new systems performance to be monitored. Once everyone was happy with the data collected, we replaced the remaining system with another new CIAT unit, and again put this through a ‘proofing period’.
The units are now operating in the Run/Standby mode that was originally requested. This mode basically means that one unit is always operating, and that periodically (approx every 7 days) the units switch over, the only time that both units would operate together would be if they sensed a rise in temperature, and 1No system running was struggling to achieve the set point, the 2nd would commence operating until the set point temperature was achieved.
This set up ensures that each unit is in operation on a regular basis, and by operating on a schedule, the ‘load’ is shared, and ensures that not one system is dormant, which could potentially be harmful to the unit in the long term.
