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Configuration of an aisle containment

Step 1. Cabinets Configured Hot & Cold Aisle

Schneikel-Line's aisle containment solution is a retrofittable upgrade to the standard Access Cabinet platform.

Hot and Cold Aisle Containment for Data Centers

Cabinets configured in hot and cold aisle layout with raised floor delivering cold air to the cabinet fronts

Step 2. Configure Cabinet Top Panels

Remove standard top panels & replace with cable standard cable troughs.

Note - Cabinets in the middle of the rows of the aisle only need cable troughs fitted at the front of each cabinet to provide the top panel mounting facility.

Data Centers Cabinets Hot andCold Aisle Containment

Note - Cabinets at the end of the aisle need to have troughs fitted front and rear to support the end of aisle door structures.

top panel cable troughs
top panel

Note - Top panel cable troughs include adjustable cable drop offs & brush strip seals 

Step 3. Configure & Fit The End Of Aisle Doors

The end of aisle sliding door assemblies mount directly to the cabinet top panel cable troughs.

cold aisle sliding door assemblies
warm aisle sliding door assemblies

Step 4. Fit Additional Top Panel Cable Troughs & End Of Aisle Door

Top panel cable troughs are only required on the front of each of the cabinets in the center of each row of cabinets

cabinets

Step 5. Fit Aisle Top Panels

Fully contained modular aisle structure

full contained modular aisle structure

Aisle configured with optional Flex Tray cable basket providing across aisle cable transitions.

cold aisle flex tray able basket

Cabinets configured with aisle containment (cold air is forced through equipment cabinets)

cold aisle containment

Cabinets configured without aisle containment (cold air is free to short circuit to CRAC units)

heating/cooling

What are the benefits?

  • By stopping the warm air mixing with the cold air the cold air reaches the equipment at a lower temperature providing a greater cooling effect.

  • Air segregation provides more uniform air delivery temperature top to bottom at each cabinet space.

  • Greater uniformity in operating condition at each cabinet space allows changes to be implemented at room level.

  • By increasing the return air temperature to the CRAC unit (Computer Room Air Conditioning) improves CRAC cooling efficiency and capacity, driving to lower operational costs.

  • As a rule of thumb a 1°C (1.8°F) increase in the CRAC control air temperature equates to around a ~4% cost reduction in the computer room cooling costs thanks to improved system efficiency.

Chart shows the effect of aisle containment. The point at which the temperatures dropped coincided with the closure of the aisle doors.

effect of aisle containment chart

How can aisle containment be configured?

Converting Cold Aisle To Hot Aisle

Cold aisle containment configuration.

cold aisle containment configuration
cold aisle containment

For configurations where i-ACE is deployed, simply configure the layout to allow 300mm wide spaces between cabinet ensuring the contained aisle is deployed with sufficient cooling capacity and redundancy.

Delta T

Alternatively install the NEW Delta T series of 19-inch rack mountable heat exchangers and run as either a cold aisle containment configuration or hot aisle containment configuration.

heat exchangers aisle containment

Conventional Hot Aisle Operation

cooling
Conventional Hot Aisle Operation
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