It is critical to keep the temperature and humidity in your Data Centers, IDF Rooms and MDF Rooms under control and in parameters to operate efficiently and effectively. Since servers expel heat while operating, temperature control will always remain an important issue.
We just finished installing a new 225 ton chiller for a client in northern California. The customer’s heat load was at the limit of the unit’s capacity and, because of this, they wouldn’t be able to have redundant cooling. We were able to install and pipe a new 225 ton chiller and five (5) free cooling or economizer units (cooling units that use outdoor ambient air to provide free cooling during colder winter months) to meet Title 24 (California Energy Efficiency) requirements. While on-site, we noticed that the humidity was not stable and it kept fluctuating. We inspected the chilled water pipes and found out that the insulation company didn’t put vapor barriers on all of the fittings. This was causing the pipes to sweat and all of the excess condensation was damaging the pipe insulation. The customer gave us approval to remove the damaged insulation and inspect all the fittings. We found out that all the fittings in the mezzanine, roof, switch room-1 and switch room-2 didn’t have insulation and vapor barrier. We had a conference call with the facility engineer of the original build out and he explained to our customer that they “couldn’t keep an eye on everyone at all times”, which is an unacceptable answer. DP Air got the approval to install the vapor barrier on all fittings, we made sure to take pictures of the before and after work to make sure that all fittings had a vapor barrier and that they were sealed properly.
The insulation job is still in progress, and our customer is extremely happy with us and with the job we have done to date. At this time, the temperature and humidity in both switch rooms are stable with no moisture to be found under the floor, in the mezzanine, or on the roof.
Because of DP Air’s quick response and hard work, our customer is giving us the opportunity to start a new project with them in 2022 where we will build out their switch room-3.
