AST Modular New Free Cooling Containerized Data Center

Online, July 13, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The datacenter achieves an actual metered PUE of 1.09

The double deck solution engineered by AST Modular is composed of a 40' IT 17 Racks Container with a complete fire protection system, access control and monitoring equipment and a 20' Modular Natural Free Cooling container placed on top and allowing servers to run without the use of chillers for 92% of the time in a year.

NFC, a worldwide patented AST Modular's technology, is an indirect airside economizer cooling solution that uses a passive air to air heat exchanger to cool the datacenter. NFC exploits external cold air with temperatures approximately up to 26° C. Also, while conventional direct free cooling systems need filters to reduce the amount of contaminants that are brought into the data center space and humidity control technology, AST Modular's NFC exchanges air inside segregated chambers thus avoiding cross contamination. Therefore, the IT space remains as a sealed enclosure and unaffected by external conditions such as humidity, pollution and corrosive gases, resulting in added resiliency and much better energy efficiency.

In addition, NFC's modular approach enables the customer to purchase only the cooling capacity needed to meet current needs. Additional NFC units can be added as the datacenter load grows.

A full video explaining how NFC works can be watched @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKJv8nDg-fw

The news comes among the rumors of other container manufacturers testing airside economizers whereas "AST Modular had already implemented such a solution since 2009 in Thor Datacenter in Iceland" announced AST CEO Henry Daunert on Monday. A video tour of the project can be viewed on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWktIdzVSjE

"This must be one of the most efficient Datacenter in Australia now", he added. "The weather charts indicate that Sydney enjoys a temperate and humid climate where it's very difficult to meet ASHRAE 90.1/TC 9.9 temperature and humidity ranges with alternative direct free cooling solutions. Our studies show that in such climates we stretch the available hours of free cooling and dramatically reduce the energy consumption thus saving the customer thousand dollars in datacenter cooling."