What is free cooling?
Free cooling is a cooling method that utilizes the lower temperature of the ambient air to cool servers. The purpose of the system is to increase energy efficiency and reduce operating costs. But how does it work?
In direct free cooling, cold outside air is brought into the data center and the heated air is removed. In reality, however, the process is more complicated than this, because outside air is often not ideal for IT equipment: humidification, dehumidification, filtration, additional cooling or heating are often required.
In the case of indirect free cooling, outside air does not enter the data center, so a heat exchanger is required in the system. In single-stage systems, heat transfer is performed by an air-to-air heat exchanger, while in two-stage systems there is also an air-to-liquid and a liquid-to-air heat exchanger, but this is less efficient than the single-stage version.
Free cooling can be an effective tool for reducing energy consumption and costs, but we always determine the best solution based on the conditions and requirements of the site.