The old saying “you get what you pay for,” is especially true when it comes to data centre cooling. While we can’t escape the fact that installation price will always be a major consideration in any product purchase, in specialist applications, overall system performance and reliability must play a more crucial role. This is because effective cooling directly impacts the stability, efficiency, and longevity of IT, telecommunications and data centre infrastructure. With our everyday lives reliant on technology, underperformance or failure of cooling systems can be catastrophic.
This article explores the key areas of data centre cooling system performance, the impact of underperformance not just on IT equipment but the data centre building itself, and the strategies available to identify high performing products.
Cooling system performance
In data centres, cooling system performance centres around how effectively and efficiently the system maintains optimal environmental conditions to ensure the reliable operation of IT equipment. High-performing cooling systems maximise efficiency, minimise energy use, and ensure consistent and reliable thermal control.
IT cooling systems must:
- Maintain precise, optimal temperatures
- Maintain proper humidity levels
- Ensure uniform cooling to eliminate hotspots
- Minimise energy consumption
- Ensure efficient air movement
- Respond to varying heat loads
- Maintain performance even if a component fails
- Demonstrate adherence to Standards such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and be compliant with relevant Regulations
- Ideally be scalable and adaptable to new technologies
- Ideally incorporate heat recovery and reuse.
Those specifying, designing, installing and maintaining cooling systems rely on manufacturer data to ensure the installed product meets the above requirements. If this data is incorrect, systems will not perform as designed or desired. Crucially, even a small underperformance can have a big impact on the cooling system over the lifecycle of the product. This is why it is vital that HVAC professionals use products with verified, accurate data, that are guaranteed to perform.
Cooling system underperformance and IT equipment
Because cooling is so integral to the running of data centres, it is rare to experience a total failure. Systems will be designed with back-up capacity, using redundant cooling systems (N+1, 2N, or N+2), emergency chillers, free cooling systems and the like.
However, underperforming cooling systems are a far more common occurrence. Cooling systems designed using inaccurate performance data will struggle to maintain optimum temperatures or humidity levels, use more energy, be more prone to faults and breakdown, can risk non-compliance with regulations and display less flexibility, especially when it comes to upscaling.
While these systems may not be on the brink of failure, they are not maintaining optimal conditions in an efficient or effective way. It all has a knock-on effect, and the consequences can be significant and progressively damaging.
When cooling systems underperform, the impact on IT infrastructure includes:
- Hotspots: Some areas of the data centre may experience higher temperatures, particularly around high-density racks.
- Thermal stress: Prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures causes thermal stress on hardware components, degrading their performance and lifespan.
- Performance throttling: Modern servers often include thermal controls that reduce processing speeds to prevent overheating, leading to slower operations.
- Increased error rates: Underperforming systems can trigger higher data error rates, affecting the accuracy and reliability of processes.
- Increased energy use: As temperatures rise, equipment fans work harder to cool themselves, consuming more energy and increasing operational costs.
- Component degradation and more frequent repairs: Prolonged exposure to suboptimal temperatures can accelerate hardware wear, leading to premature failures, frequent repairs and increased maintenance.
- Sudden shutdowns: If temperatures cross critical thresholds, systems might trigger emergency shutdowns, risking downtime and loss of data.
- Shortened lifespan: Consistent thermal stress can reduce the expected lifespan of servers and other equipment, leading to costly replacements sooner than planned.
- Data corruption risks: Storage devices, especially hard disk drives (HDDs), are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Underperformance in cooling can lead to data corruption or loss over time.
- Customer complaints and litigation: All these aspects can affect end-user experiences and breach Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Underperforming cooling systems may not cause immediate equipment failures but significantly increases long-term risks that can escalate into major problems, client complaints and reputational damage. Consistent, efficient cooling is critical to ensuring data centre reliability, performance, and sustainability. Therefore, putting installation price over performance can be a short-sighted plan.
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Buildings and underperformance
But it’s not just IT equipment that suffers when cooling systems underperform, the whole building does too. With cooling accounting for an average of nearly 40% of total data centre energy consumption, efficiency plays a significant role in determining operating costs, carbon footprint, reaching regulatory compliance and sustainability goals.
Here's more reasons why product performance should take priority over installation cost:
Energy efficient systems reduce operational costs
While high-performance cooling systems may have a larger upfront cost, they are often more energy efficient. This leads to lower electricity bills for the lifecycle of the product. Efficient systems, working at optimal conditions also reduce the strain on equipment, minimising maintenance and replacement costs.
Improving energy efficiency (PUE)
Data centres are measured by their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). Advanced cooling solutions contribute to a lower PUE. This improves overall sustainability and reduces carbon footprint.
Supporting scalability
As data needs grow, so does heat output. High-performance cooling systems are better suited for scaling with the demands of modern data centres, ensuring they can handle increased capacity without compromising performance.
Enhancing environmental control
Precision in temperature and humidity control is key. Performance-focused systems provide better environmental stability, which extends equipment lifespan and optimises performance.
Enhancing heat recovery
Since data centres generate large amounts of heat due to the high density of IT equipment, advanced cooling systems can capture this heat instead of wasting it. The recovered heat can then be used for:
- District heating (heating nearby buildings or neighbourhoods)
- Industrial processes (in nearby facilities)
- Domestic hot water (for offices or other on-site needs).
Benefits of heat recovery include:
- A better Energy Reuse Factor (ERF), which complements PUE by measuring useful energy exported
- Lower energy costs over time
- Stronger sustainability credentials, supporting ESG and carbon-neutral targets
- Access to regulatory incentives or subsidies, depending on the region.
Regulatory compliance
Decision makers can rest assured that high-performing cooling systems will meet relevant Standards and Regulations.
System lifespan
It’s important to member that an underperforming product rarely works in isolation and will impact on other parts of the cooling system. This makes premature failure of key components such as compressors and fans more likely.
In short, putting product performance before installation cost makes sound financial sense and can pay dividends in the long run.
How to identify high performing products
With performance being a key consideration, its vital decision makers have access to accurate, verified product data. This removes the risk of underperformance as it ensures that correctly designed and installed systems will perform as expected.
A key strategy to identify high performing products is to choose products that are Eurovent certified. This is because independent, third-party performance certification ensures products have been vigorously tested and all data comprehensively evaluated for accuracy. Products successfully certified under programmes such as Eurovent Certified Performance must pass a number of checkpoints before they receive certification, including:
- Laboratory tests to evaluate product performance
- Factory audits to ensure production line quality
- Selection software checks and/or certification to ensure software uses accurate and reliable data (dependent on programme)
- Evaluation of all submitted documents (including marketing materials) for technical credibility and continuity
- And crucially, products are put under a surveillance process to ensure they continue to comply with declared data.
The big benefits of choosing certified products for data centre operators include:
- Guaranteed performance
- Proven energy efficiency
- Free access to certified data, allowing direct product comparison
- Regulatory compliance
- Reduced risk for system designers, especially in projects requiring a 0% tolerance for modelling
- Products also hold less risk financially as they have been independently tested.
Don’t prioritise price over performance. Find out more about our programmes for data centre cooling:
Heat Exchangers (including for heat recovery)