Hot aisle containment encloses the warm exhaust air from IT equipment in data center racks. The air from the enclosed hot aisle is returned to cooling equipment via a ceiling plenum or ductwork and then reintroduced into the data center via raised floor, computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, or ductwork.
The advantages of hot aisle containment include:
- Improved energy efficiency with energy savings over an uncontained environment of 40% or more.
- The open areas of the data center are cool and can be used for certain low-density racks or storage cabinets.
- The uncontained area is a more acceptable working environment for technicians and engineers.
- Accurate distribution of supply air is less critical as hot air is properly returned.
- Expensive raised floor distribution systems and supply ductwork can be avoided.
Hot Aisle Containment and DCIM Software
Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software is used to easily monitor all containment temperature sensors. DCIM software enables data center managers to collect real-time data and automatically plot it against ASHRAE or customized thermal envelopes to see hot spots at a glance, know when to increase or decrease temperature set points, and simplify the management of airside economization.
The benefits of hot aisle containment in conjunction with DCIM software are:
- Ensure proper inlet temperatures in server racks in all your containment aisles.
- Save energy and drive green initiatives by safely increasing temperature set points.
- Increase uptime through real-time alerting against preset thresholds.
- Easily trend active power, energy costs, and environmental conditions.
- Monitor other facility equipment, including CRACs, building meters, PDUs, and UPSs.
- Generate energy cost reports for customer bill-back.
Want to see how Sunbird’s world-leading DCIM software makes it easy for you to optimize hot aisle containment and increase efficiency and uptime? Get your free test drive now!
