The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded patent No. 8,554,390, “Free Cooling Solution for a Containerized Data Center,” to the International Business Machines Corporation in Armonk, N.Y., USA.
“There is a problem in that the cost of operating today’s data centers continues to rise and come under closer and closer scrutiny,” the inventors explain in their summary. “Containerized data center solutions face challenges in this sense that more traditional data centers do not. They are designed to operate in remote locations and under extreme conditions. As a result, they often need to be supported by air-cooled chillers for cooling that are less efficient than more conventional, water-cooled chillers.”
“What is needed is a system and method for cooling a containerized data center that are designed to operate in remote locations and under extreme conditions without air-cooled chillers for cooling that are less efficient than more conventional, water-cooled chillers.”
The patent covers “a heat exchanger system having an IT container having an inner chamber containing the media from which heat is to be pulled, and further having an outer surface to which is attached corrugated columns of thermally conducting material, cooling water pipes through the corrugated columns supplied with cooling water, at least the outer surface of the container and the corrugated columns is composed of metal and the outer surface of the container is separated from the inner surface by insulator material. It also contains a temperature monitor and controller for controlling the cooling system based upon the environment temperature to save energy.”
