In additions to standards, numerous technical committees provide recommendations that are beneficial to the performance.
which has additional requirements for code compliance on both air and waterside economizers. These updates are based on improved equipment ratings. ASHRAE TC 9.9 is a technical committee that provides guidelines with updated envelopes for temperature and humidity class ratings. In addition to standards, numerous technical committees provide recommendations that are beneficial Other notable changes include updated climate zone classifications from ASHRAE 169, mandatory requirements for equipment replacements or alterations, which include economization and integrated economizer control and fault detection in direct expansion equipment.Īnother important standard is California’s title 24 Energy Standard, which has additional requirements for code compliance on both air and waterside economizers.
Fluid economizers shall be able to provide 100% of the cooling load when outdoor conditions are below a specific range. When airside economizers are in place, they must provide up to 100% of the supply air as outdoor air for cooling. Exceptions to this exist, which are outlined in Standard 90.1. For each cooling system, an airside economizer or fluid economizer is required. ASHRAE Standard 90.1 outlines economizer requirements for new buildings, additions to existing buildings and alterations to HVAC systems in existing buildings. Q: What new or existing requirements are affecting economization considerations?Ī: Industry standards are under continuous maintenance with numerous energy-savings measures being introduced regularly. How can an Engineer of Record ensure they are using the correct energy ratings and properly regulated equipment? The answer is to be knowledgeable of the correct efficiency rating and DOE certification system. Mechanical Engineers of Record are constantly tasked with implementing the most energy efficient equipment in their facilities while ensuring the equipment is certified by the all governing authorities, including the Federal DOE. For example, EER examines equipment’s net total cooling capacity whereas SCOP uses net sensible cooling capacity. Computer room spaces however, are designed to provide sensible cooling capacity 24/7/365 in mission critical environments. These efficiency ratings were created and used for comfort cooling equipment, which is optimized to perform to building occupancy periods and seasonal weather. The confusion should not come as a surprise though, prior to 2010 efficiency and rating tables specific to computer room air conditioning units did not exist and this type of equipment was treated as comfort cooling equipment which was predominantly evaluated by other efficiency ratings such as EER, SEER, and IPLV. This has introduced some confusion to the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) & data center industry as to which efficiency rating to use for the computer room application for air conditioning equipment. Federal Department of Energy (DOE) enforced new energy efficiency requirements for Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) equipment, which had not been federally regulated before. INDUSTRY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS For Computer Room Air ConditionersĮffective on January 1, 2016, the U.S. It’s become apparent, from the interactions Data Aire has, that customers are seeking an efficient precision cooling system that can greatly reduce their total cost of ownership. In addition, changing state codes and requirements force engineers to examine their application designs to assure they meet current standards. Likewise, they need to think about how much money can be saved versus how much energy is being consumed. They must consider energy availability, especially from urban utility providers.
Approximately 10% of data center operating expenditure (OPEX) is power, and power is likely to be about 15% of datacenter OPEX by 2021.1 Economization solutions (also called free cooling) have become a primary concern for mechanical engineers and data center managers.