Cooling Audit for
Identifying Potential
Cooling Problems in
Data Centers
White Paper #40
By Kevin Dunlap
Revision 1
2004 American Power Conversion. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied, transmitted, or
stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. www.apc.com Rev 2004-1
2
Executive Summary
The compaction of Information Technology equipment and simultaneous increases in
processor power consumption are creating challenges for data center managers in
ensuring adequate distribution of cool air, removal of hot air and sufficient cooling capacity.
This paper provides a checklist for assessing potential problems that can adversely affect
the cooling environment within a data center.
2004 American Power Conversion. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied, transmitted, or
stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. www.apc.com Rev 2004-1
3
Introduction
The compaction of technical equipment and simultaneous advances in processor power have created
problems for those responsible for delivering and maintaining proper mission-critical environments. While
the overall total power and cooling capacity designed for a data center may be adequate, the distribution of
cool air to the right areas may not. With more compact equipment now being housed within a single cabinet,
and many data center managers beginning to contemplate large-scale deployments with multiple racks of
ultracompact blade servers, the increased power required and heat dissipated is causing some concern.
These new systems, as seen in Figure 1, take up far less space than traditional rack-mounted servers, but
they dramatically increase heat density. Throwing multiple high-density racks into a data center can result in
problems ranging from o