AHUs
Time to harness an eff ective data centre air force
Air handling units are crucial to creating optimal environmental conditions in data centres to ensure the eff ective performance and reliability of IT equipment. They regulate temperature, control humidity, purify air, and distribute it evenly throughout the facility. Tim Mitchell, sales director of Klima-Therm, explains.
Data
centres are fundamental to the success of the digital economies of most countries.
A
t its most rudimentary, an air handling unit (AHU) is essentially just a fan in a box. A modern data centre containing state-of-the-art blade servers, on the other
hand, features some of the most sophisticated, cutting-edge equipment currently available. This apparent technological contrast is, however, belied by the fact that there have been major advances made in AHUs in recent years that take them way beyond mere fans in boxes, of which more later.
AHUs play a critical part in protecting a data centre’s computing capacity, which is important, not least because these advanced facilities contain ‘mission critical’ equipment that simply can’t be allowed to malfunction or fail. And this protective role is becoming ever more important as the scope and capacities of data centres increase. Data centres are fundamental to the success of the digital economies of most countries. Not only do they store and manage enormous quantities of data relied on by organisations
for their day-to-day operations, but they also drive streaming services such as Netfl ix and Amazon Prime and host Cloud services storing vast amounts of business-critical information. Moreover, they are increasingly in demand for rapidly growing technologies such as artifi cial intelligence (AI). Global fi nancial giant Goldman Sachs points out that the explosion in interest in generative AI has resulted in an ‘arms race’ to develop the technology that will require many more high-density data centres to be constructed. Goldman Sachs Research forecasts global power demand from data centres will increase 50% by 2027 and by up to a staggering 165% by the end of the decade compared with 2023. In order to operate eff ectively, data centres need to run in a safe, energy-effi cient, and sustainable way, and that means neutralising unwanted heat. The most signifi cant source of this is the high temperatures generated by the IT equipment itself. The temperature range in the aisles of a typical data centre is between 26 and 46°C. A large data centre could produce 20 to 50MW of heat. And the risks posed by too much heat can be intensifi ed by the increasingly frequent abnormally hot weather we have experienced over the last few years which has put even greater pressure on data centre cooling. That’s why the main function of AHUs in data centres is to help maintain the right temperature in the facility such that the equipment within it continues to operate at its optimum. However, they do far more than this; they also help purify
the air, dehumidify it, and distribute it evenly throughout the facility. All these protective measures help protect the delicate equipment housed in data centres. But, more than this, the latest AHUs deliver exceptional
energy savings, low emissions, and impressive cost savings. Many incorporate energy-effi cient features like variable speed EC fans and redundancy to ensure uninterrupted cooling as well as minimising operational costs and environmental impact.
The variable-speed drives incorporated into modern AHUs
allow fans to operate at diff erent speeds based on demand, resulting in signifi cant energy cost savings. The redundancy inherent in the machines can now be used in normal operation, rather than sitting idle, to further reduce operation fan speeds, with energy savings increasing by the cube of the fan speed
22 April 2025 •
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