September 26, 2007—According to a new study by Opengate Data Systems, a typical data center running at 5,000 watts per server cabinet will experience an automatic and thermal shutdown within three minutes and nine seconds during a power outage. Higher density data center applications experience even more rapid heat-up and shutdown times, with 10,000 watts or more of server equipment shutting down in less than one minute, says the report.
Commissioned by Active Power, a company that provides energy- efficient critical power solutions and UPS systems, the Data Center Emergency Cooling Study examines the impact of a power outage in a data center environment and the subsequent loss of cooling.
In the event of a power disruption, the ambient temperature can rapidly increase since a power outage will usually force the data center’s cooling system to shutdown. It typically takes two to three minutes before full cooling capacity is restored and all cooling systems cycle back on.
Opengate conducted studies on thermal runaways, a condition where servers overheat and shut down. Active Power’s CoolAir technology was also reviewed for its performance during power disruptions and its ability to solve these thermal overload conditions. CoolAir is the only commercially available uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system to provide both emergency power and cooling for data center operators, says Active Power.
The study found that a typical 100 kVA IT load can operate for as long as 10 minutes 46 seconds during an outage using CoolAir before an automatic thermal shutdown is initiated, an improvement of 242 percent compared to current numbers and far exceeding the critical two to three minutes of cooling loss.
