Hot Aisle Containment

Warm air rises and iInstalling hot aisle containment provides a way to contain the hot exaust air from server cabinets and prevent this from mixing or re-circulating over the top of server cabients with the cold air supplied to the front of ths server cabinets. Hot aisle containment can consist of a vertical partition that runs over the top of the server cabinets to act as a ceiling return, or ducting can be used to root the hot exhaust air to computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units. Hot aisle containment improves the efficiency of the cold airflow and helps ensure the right temperature reaches the server cabinet intakes. Cooling systems becomre more efficent, use less energy and suffer less wear and tear, especially on their moving components such as compressors, pumps and fans.

Bespoke section(s)

H2. Hot Aisle Containment from Server Room Environments

Hot aisle containment provides a way to efficiently manage and control hot airflow within server rooms, data centres (on-premises and Edge sites) and other IT environments to reduce cooling system related energy cost and prevent hot and cold air paths mixing.

A wide range of aisle containment solutions for all space sizes and budgets
Our bespoke design approach allows us to provide flexible and suitable cold aisle containment
Our aisle containment systems are suitable for new build and retrofit projects
Suitable for existing cabinet rows and space requirements to suit any cabinet width, depth and height
Options include a selection of roof panels, infill panels and door types
Additional security measures including manual and electronic locking and access-controlled aisle doors
Additional systems available for environmental monitoring, thermal cabinet mapping and CFD analysis

The Benefits of Hot Aisle Containment

The purpose of hot aisle containment is to collate the heated air from a server cabinet exhaust and deliver this as a return path to the computer room cooling system. The containment of the hotter air makes the server room space more comfortable for those working within it. The result is that the overall volume of cool air within the room is greater, and this can be more effective for cooling the equipment mounted in the server cabinets.

With hot aisle containment a single cooling unit (with or without redundancy) can be used to cool multiple aisle containments.Using in-row cooling systems can be more enery efficient than raised-floor cooling and allow a greater kW heat load per rack to be supported.

Cooling Efficiency Improvements

Hot aisle containment systems are proven to reduce server room and data centre cooling related operating costs. With most data centres reporting that 30-40% or more of the energy usage is cooling related, a 1% improvement in cooling system efficiency can have a dramatic impact on operating costs.

Server Cabinets and Containment

The hot aisle containment systems can be optimised to use server cabinets from any manufacturer. This makes our containment system ideal for retrofit project, no matter the overall size (width, depth or height) of the onsite server cabinets. As part of our containment range, we also supply and install Thermal Curtain Aisle Containments for use in either cold aisle or hot aisle containment installations.

Containment Components

A hot aisle containment system does not require a return plenum as a ceiling plenum function as the return path to the cooling system. Doors at either end of the containment POD enclose the space whilst providing access if required. Roof panels enclose the top part of the containment. A ‘chimney’ can be used to extend the hot aisle up to a ceiling plenum. Drop boxes are placed on top of air handler units up to the ceiling to allow the warm air to be sucked back to the unit for processing. The cooling system can be in-room or in-room.

Our Projects team provides a complete design, installation and maintenance service for hot-aisle containment. Please contact us or complete our design enquiry form for a project review.