Units with volume flow up to 85,000 m³/h are tested under real conditions

Advancement of the technological leadership of Adia-DENCO® and CAIRplus® units

Herne/Wurzen, 20th November, 2015. DencoHappel (formerly GEA Air Treatment) has put into operation probably the largest and most state-of-the-art test chamber for air conditioning equipment and is once again setting international standards in this business sector. The site is located in Wurzen, close to the city of Leipzig. The test chamber is used for close control units of the Adia-DENCO® series designed for data centres, that utilise indirect adiabatic evaporative cooling as well as for standard air handling units with air volume flows from 10,000 to 85.000 m³/h and temperature ranges from +10 to +45 degrees Celsius under real conditions. The test chamber does not only serve to demonstrate the effectiveness of our own products to the customer, but also to accelerate the development of new units consuming minimum energy input and delivering the maximum capacity. Thus, the test chamber is a pivotal point in Air Eco2nomy strategy of the company. The first demonstrations for operators of data centres have already been conducted with great success.


The new testing facility for Adia-DENCO®- and CAIRplus® together with the associated control station and its generously-sized space for discussions, form the centerpiece of the new Customer Center. The main task of the test chamber is to provide an opportunity for the operators of data centres centers to witness the units delivering the highest efficiency under real conditions and to demonstrate the results of the Power Usage Effectiveness for Adia-DENCO® units. The PUE index reaches the mark of almost 1.0.
"No one buys an air conditioning system for a data centre from the drawing board any more", says Dr. Christian Fieberg, Development Manager at DencoHappel. "Anyone who is buying several dozen air conditioning units for the climate control of his data centre wants to be absolutely sure that they satisfy the requirements without any difficulties. A performance record under peak load is an integral component in the energy planning of new data centres.”

Testing under real conditions
Conditions as they occur in data centres and their environment can be simulated in the test chamber. Critical parameters are as follows:

• Meeting the requirements for the design temperature and humidity at outside-air connectors
• Meeting requirements for extract-air temperature of the data centre and
• Static pressure at four duct connectors for outside air, extract air, supply air and exhaust air

The system consists of three air handling units connected with each other and with the unit being tested via permanent air ducts. Depending on the size and performance of the tested Adia-DENCO®s, one or both air handling units condition the air to a temperature and humidity that simulates outside air on a humid summers day. In such a way a sultry summer day can be simulated, which is certainly an endurance test for the system of indirect adiabatic evaporative cooling in the unit.
In the third unit, simulates the actual data centre, a heat exchanger is used to warm the supply air to the planned extract-air temperature of the server, as anticipated by the customer for his individual circumstances.

All parameters are recorded
The measuring equipment includes four measuring grids mounted at air connectors, quick-acting thermal sensors for recording temperature values and capacitive humidity sensors - for air humidity values. To meet the specification for air volume flow in the datacentre and outside-air rate as well as to ensure the accuracy of data, the test chamber uses the method of dynamic pressure and air-speed measuring. Moreover, static pressure, electrical power consumption and water consumption of the tested unit are measured together with the heat output of the data centre. All in all 130 measuring points are recorded and evaluated every 10 seconds. Based on these values, the most important indicators such as cooling output, EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio) and PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) are calculated.
EER performance figure denotes the ratio between the cooling output and the electrical input, i.e. power consumption of an air handling unit. The PUE indicator presents an essential value for the operators of the data centres and describes the total electrical power consumption of IT and air-conditioning equipment divided by the electrical power consumption of IT. By demonstrating PUE values of 1.1 and less in full-load conditions, the Adia-DENCO® units with adiabatic cooling can boast by far the best results internationally.
The entire system is regulated by a large, modern control station that can simultaneously also be used as a conference room for discussions with customers. Visitors can comfortably see all the details on a large screen monitor, while the test chamber manager can fully monitor and regulate the system and test unit on three further screens. The entire data capturing is forwarded to the host computer via a BUS system, so that all values converge centrally. All measurement devices are calibrated and fulfill all relevant international norms regarding measurement of efficiency of air handling units with direct evaporative cooling, especially the U.S. Directive ASHRAE 143-2015 (Method of Test for Rating Indirect Evaporative Coolers).



More rapid development of new units
The new test chamber is not only for demonstrating the effectiveness of the Adia-DENCO® and CAIRplus® units to customers. The equipment also supports Engineering in its development of products. "This facility is a great advantage for us. It enables us to continually develop our equipment more easily and in particular faster than our competition, so we can maintain our lead in the market or even improve our position", says Dr. Fieberg.
"With the new test chamber in Wurzen, we have once again set worldwide standards. It is the elementary key of our Air Eco2nomy strategy to accelerate the development of new units consuming minimum energy input, delivering the maximum capacity to the benefit of our customers“, reiterates CEO René van Rijsewijk.
The DencoHappel brand belongs to the group of companies with extensive technological leadership in air-treatment and conditioning systems, filtration equipment as well as process-air cooling. With its premium brands CAIRplus®, DENCO®, MultiMAXX®; Multi Flair®, DencoHappel COM4®, Flex Geko®, FireTex®, SepTex® and Sahara® as well as the DELBAG® products, DencoHappel has repeatedly set technological standards through innovation capability for over a century, and can satisfy nearly every conceivable customer wish. DencoHappel with their headquarters are based in Herne, Germany are globally active with the manufacturing facilities in Germany, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Turkey, China and India as well as sales organizations and distributors in more than 50 countries. We are a € 300 million business with over 1,700 employees.

Contact:
Zuzanna Konopnicka
Tel: +49 2325 468-612
Email: [email protected]