Free air cooling loops maybe? (Not direct free air cooling with air
exchange, the version with something much like an air handler outside
with a coil and an fan running cold outside air over the coil with the
water/glycol that would normally be the loop off of the chiller) the
primary use of them is cost savings by using less energy to cool when
it's fairly cold out, but it can also prevent low temperature issues on
compressors by not running them when it's cold. I'd expect it would not
require the same sort of facade changes as it could be on the roof and
depending only need water/glycol lines into the space, depending on
cooling tower vs air cooled and chiller location it could also
potentially use the same piping (which I think is the traditional use).
I'm also fairly curious to see the root cause analysis, also hoping
someone is at least looking at some mechanism to allow transferring
chiller capacity between floors if they had multiple floors and only had
the failure on one floor. This sort of mass failure seems to point
towards either design issues (like equipment selection/configuration vs
temperature range for the location), systemic maintenance issues, or
some sort of single failure point that could take all the chillers out,
none of which I'd be happy to see in a data center.
Anyone have any idea what the total cost of this incident is likely to
reach (dead equipment, etc.)
On 1/16/2024 4:08 PM, Sean Donelan wrote:
350 Cermak Chicago is a "historic" building which means you can't change
the visible outside. Someone had long discussions about the benefits of
outside air economizers, but can't change the windows. Need to hide
HVAC plant (as much as possible).
I would design all colos to look like 375 Pearl St (formerly Verizon,
formerly AT&T) New York. Vents and concrete.
Almost all the windows visible on the outside of 350 Cermak Chicago are
"fake." They are enclosed on the inside (with fake indoor decor) because
of 1912 glass panes aren't very weatherproof. But they preserve the look
and feel of the neighborhood :-)
350 Cermak rebuilt as a colo is over 20-years old. It will be
interesting to read the final root cause analysis.
Of course, as always, networks and data centers should not depend on a
single POP. Diversify the redudancy, because something will always fail.
There are multiple POP/IXP in major cities. And multiple cities with
POPs and IXPs.
