Three cooling technologies in one

Emerson Network Power has announced availability in Europe, Middle East & Africa of the first adiabatic freecooling chiller in the market, the Liebert® AFC, designed to maximise freecooling capabilities, while delivering guaranteed availability within the data centre environment.

The Liebert AFC combines the outstanding levels of energy efficiency allowed by adiabatic freecooling, together with the endless availability guaranteed by the multi-scroll compressor back up. This pioneering adiabatic system enables water evaporation which lowers the air temperature entering the freecooling and condensing coils, consequently increasing freecooling operation and mechanical efficiency. Moreover, it maximises freecooling all year round, while maintaining 100 per-cent cooling availability – even under the most critical conditions, such as fluctuating power supplies, water shortages and extreme external air temperatures.

A consolidated design and the integration of new technologies have led to the most efficient water cooler in the market - resulting in partial Power Usage Effectiveness (pPUE) of 1.08 - lower than any other chilled water system. Moreover, the Liebert AFC provides a significant increase in terms of energy savings when compared to any competitor's most efficient chilled water system available in the market. For example, in a typical 1.4 MW data centre located in Central Europe running at full load, the freecooling chiller will consume approximately 963,000 kWh of energy per year, based on current market offerings. However, this is reduced to 645,000 kWh over an annual period with the Liebert AFC – this reduction in energy consumption equates to a cost saving of almost £40,000 based on an energy cost of 0.12 £/kW.

Emerson Network Power is continually striving to develop data centre solutions of the future. These are designed to optimise availability to the customer in any circumstance and this commitment was marked last year with the launch of its dedicated Thermal Management business. Drawing on the combined experience and industry-leading knowledge within the Thermal Management business, the Liebert AFC solution seeks to address the complex requirements of enterprise-scale and colocation facilities, in order to reliably and efficiently control and manage heat.

“Over the last few years, the data centre ecosystem has become mission-critical in supporting major innovation trends such as cloud computing, the latent power of ‘big data’, and the exponential rise of mobile devices. Consequently, this has driven an increase in operating temperatures within which IT infrastructure functions,” said Kevin Brady, vice president Thermal Management, Emerson Network Power in Europe, Middle East & Africa. “Our latest Liebert AFC adiabatic freecooling chiller seeks to address some of the evolving pressures around heat management. Driven by our understanding of the challenges facing our customers, we are adopting innovative methods like adiabatic cooling, delivering pioneering data centre solutions.”