Airedale delivers 36 fan air cooled chillers

The vast order, for an undisclosed data center operator, is believed to be one of the largest single, colocation orders taken by Airedale in their 50 year history. It consists of 21 of the super-sized chillers, 2 free cooling DeltaChillTM chillers (16 fan), 72 AireWallTM units, 12 SmartCool ONETM 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 optimisation control package.

The data center company has partnered with Airedale as part of their drive to meet its stringent sustainability objectives as they seek to employ the highest efficiency technologies on their 30MW campus. Working closely with their 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, maximising 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 deliver 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 their 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 are renowned for their advanced system operations. The cooling system optimiser and on site BMS works to deliver a fully automated system at both product and system level, delivering optimal performance in response to conditions at a detail and speed beyond that which a human operator could respond to. Likewise, the control system’s ability to recognise 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 co-ordinate 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.”

Adam 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.”

Adam concluded,

“We cannot disclose more detail about this detail 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.”