Datacenter and Telecom Facility Support Systems

cpEngineers (LLC) are a group of Independant Consulting Engineers focused on Datacenter and Telecommunications Mission Critical Support Systems. In the past we have focused on reliability and cost effective solutions. Now we take the environment into consideration more than ever, not only to save energy and run your facility more efficiently, but to take advantage of huge incentives from the government and utility companies.

'If we run facilities more efficiently,
The Facility and The Environment Benefit - Owners Save Money'

With today’s technology, facility loads have increased dramatically. Existing data centers that may have been designed in the 90’s with 30 to 50 watts per a sq ft capacity. As you have seen, your modern business model has crammed more equipment into the same space. Often these new loads exert 80 to 140 watts per a sq ft.

New data centers are now designed with these loads in mind. However, existing, older data centers are often stretched to their limits. Some facility engineers are using their N+1 redundancy to support new equipment leaving no redundancy to support equipment failure. In both existing and new facilities capacity must be reviewed and planned for carefully. In a new facility how much capacity will be needed initially, and how will additional capacity be added when it is needed? In an existing mission critical facility, has capacity been reached?

'The experience and expertise of cpEngineers
can be valuable in addressing these issues'

cpEngineers can design/build and commission your new mission critical facility, then offer operations support once the facility has been permitted and is operational. When cpEngineers design/build your facility we plan for the future and address all pre-planning in depth.

The most common problems we see in Mission Critical facilities are: Grounding, failure to isolate critical systems from general building systems, harmonics, and inadequate cooling. In addition, space and management problems often occur when a room grows rack by rack and designers fail to plan for the future. Upgrading or repairing existing support system conditions can be overwhelming to facility management and local engineers. cpEngineers can help and here we offer a glimpse on how we can help.

HVAC and Humidity:

TIME IS MONEY. Telecommunications [Telecom] and Datacenter facilities engineers have to roll out new services to remain competitive. New services bring high tech equipment that can realistically produce 4000 to 6000 watts per a rack. Often the mechanical HVAC infrastructure cannot support this new equipment either due to poor delta-T [air flow] across the rack or the BTU cooling capacity has been reached. Today’s "High Tech" servers are more resilient to higher temps and move air more efficiently. Engineers need to decide the best placement for high energy equipment, where heat will not dissipate to more sensitive equipment and where heat can easily be removed by strategic placement of ductwork, especially the return air duct.

cpEngineers can do a field review of your facility to determine your HVAC status. It’s possible you have plenty of capacity and have an air distribution issue, whereby air is not penetrating into the racks of equipment and “HOT SPOTS” don’t have return plenums over them to take the heat load back to the evaporator coil in the air handler. If this is the case, cold air is recycling back to the air handler and heat is not being removed efficiently.

Since adding HVAC capacity is usually a capital expense, most large companies have to plan accordingly. Even if they have the capital available these kinds of repairs can take time to repair due to complex design, engineering and working in and around existing data centers. We understand this dilemma and can create a step by step roadmap prioritizing where needed.

cpEngineers can:

• Evaluate the status of a facility or part of facility by doing a “Field review”.
• Engineer and Air Balance according to equipment needs utilizing in house and local contractors.
• Engineer and Design Air Conditioning Capacity as needed.
• “Sanity check” contractor bids and engineering.
• Manage onsite Construction Management and Contractor Work.
• Arrange Permitting and "Close Out" documentation.
• Ensure correct functioning of Humidification and De-Humidification equipment as well as HVAC equipment and Controls.

Every situation is very different and cpEngineers understand. We can serve as liaison between your IT department and Facilities Department to construct, repair or maintain your facility and HVAC systems with future expansion in mind.

Critical Powering:

Powering equipment in Datacenters and Telecom Facilities as with all Mission Critical Support Systems requires redundancy. cpEngineers can do a “Field Review” to establish your powering conditions. Powering can be very different from facility to facility. Here are some of the things we can assist with:

• Evaluate and check correct Preventative Maintenance for UPS, DC equipment and backup batteries are established.
• Evaluate and check N+1 redundancy.
• Research Harmonics issues and repair as needed.
• Grounding and Neutral evaluation.
• Arc Flash evaluation for correct PPE.
• Identification and labeling of circuits.
• Breaker testing and infra red checks.
• Evaluate and implement rebates and ways to cut back on power consumption.
• Evaluate and implement Solar and other Green Alternatives.
• Load balancing.

Overview:

We fully understand all Support Systems for Critical Facilities. Although HVAC and Powering issues are prevalent in existing Mission Critical Facilities, we understand the whole architecture needed to Upgrade or Construct your Critical operation:

• HVAC/ Chilled Water Systems.
• Air Flow distribution.
• Generators, ATS, UPS or DC plants and Power Distribution.
• Access/Controls/ Monitoring to NOC [Building automation systems].
• Clean Agent Fire Suppression [FM200] and Analaser, Pre-action systems.
• Security and Safety Systems.
• Construction Management.
• Raised Floor Systems.
• Facility Architectural and Structure.