Comparison of ICT equipment air-intake temperatures between cold aisle containment and hot aisle containment in datacenters
Akihiro Tsuda, Yosuke Mino, Shun Nishimura · 2017
The objective of this paper is to clarify the differences between cold aisle containment (CAC) and hot aisle containment (HAC) with regard to the air-intake temperature of the ICT equipment in the rack. Thus, we constructed a system in which these two capping methods could be compared under the same load and air-conditioned environment, and measured those thermal environments. When the ICT equipment is installed vertically in the middle of the rack, the air-intake temperature with CAC was lower than that with HAC. The average difference was 1°;C, and 3°;C on the upper intake side. We also adjusted the air-intake temperatures of the ICT equipment to the equivalent level under both types of aisle containment by controlling the air-conditioning supplied air volume. As a result, when each air-intake temperature was kept at the same level under capping methods in the test environment, the air-conditioning fan power consumption with HAC was twice that with CAC. This demonstrates that the CAC can save more energy consumed by air-conditioning systems as it easily retains the low temperature conditions.