The Mississauga headquarters of Microsoft’s Canadian subsidiary oversees ten regional offices across the country and ensuring the mission critical data and server rooms remain cool to support such extensive operations it is a high priority.
The company relies on two Aermec NRL0600 free cooling chillers. A key benefit of the free cooling chillers is their ability to deliver cooling all year round with maximum efficiency.
The chillers will go into hybrid free cooling mode when the ambient temperature is 4°F less than the unit’s inlet water temperature. In hybrid mode, the Aermec unit floods the coils on the outside of the unit and then kicks the fan speeds up to high speed. When this happens, the unit will begin to use outside ambient air providing free cooling and the units start to shut down compressors.
Microsoft is saving as much energy as possible by shutting off compressors. As the ambient conditions continue to drop, compressors will continue to shut off until no compressors are in use. When the outdoor ambient is approximately 18°F below the return water temperature the conditions for 100% free cooling into the building are met.
The energy savings with in the data centre are approximately 30% annually. An added bonus is that the compressors run much less often and never at low temperatures which dramatically extends their life expectancy.
