Custodian Data Centres, the UK’s leading colocation provider for MSPs, cloud, enterprise and digital entertainment organisations, enlisted Aqua to design, supply and install an innovative temperature control system at their new 10MW site located in Dartford, Kent.

With Custodian’s award-winning Maidstone facility nearing capacity, Custodian commissioned its new ‘DA2’ facility in Dartford, Kent, to meet the continued growth demands of its customers. Less than 15 miles outside of Central London, Custodian’s goal was to provide an advanced facility for end-users to relocate and host their mission-critical applications. The new site is carrier-neutral, operating at a PUE rating of below 1.3 and powered by resilient, 100% dual diverse renewable energy feeds.

Aqua delivered a highly energy-efficient, bespoke, closed-loop air cooling system with integrated free cooling. The design for Custodian’s DA2 includes 12 custom-designed cooling coils and a free cooling chilled water system, comprising of 3 x 500kW Aqua EcoPro+ optimised free cooling chiller units, to accommodate for the initial phase of the site opening. The EcoPro+ units operate on R454B green refrigerant. Utilising integrated free cooling chillers, drastically reduces the amount of time mechanical cooling is required, saving significantly on energy usage, carbon impact and wear & tear of components parts, in particular the compressor.

The Aqua EcoPro+ units have an in-built, optimised, free cooling coil, resulting in a fully packaged solution. In addition, with an Aqua unit, free cooling is achievable at higher ambient temperatures than with any other brand on the market, making Aqua a suitable partner for Custodian and its ever-growing client base as it allows for upgrades and additional capacity quickly and easily as needed, depending on customer needs.

The system installed at Custodian achieves all the benefits of a fresh air system but without the need for the costs and resources normally associated with air filtration and maintenance. Fixed humidity control enables precise temperature control, eliminates any guesswork, and achieves total peace of mind. EC fans installed on-site maximise system efficiency even further, as well as achieving stable pressure control.

“With the new DA2 Dartford site boasting a 10MW capacity, we needed a reliable cooling system that could handle the increased demands from the bigger site. Aqua’s bespoke energy-efficient systems and esteemed trusted experts means our customer’s data remains protected and running at optimized efficiency”, says Callum Woodhouse, M&E Manager at Custodian Data Centres. “Their sustainability commitments align with our overall company goals in reducing our carbon footprint, whilst providing a cost-effective and reliable solution for our customers. As our customer base continues to grow and expand over time, this Aqua solution allows us to adapt to the additional demands, in a seamless and efficient way”.

A fully concurrent maintained pipework system is integral to the design, ensuring no single point of failure, something which is essential in the data centre industry. In fact, a part of the pipework can be removed without affecting the normal facility operations. N+1 capability was built-in on the mechanical equipment, including fans, coils, and pumps, this gives the facility full redundancy, in the unlikely event that a fault should ever occur, DA2 can continue to operate whilst maintenance is undertaken.

Mike West, Contracts Director at Aqua, explained “Custodian’s commitment to energy efficiency is evident throughout their data centre facilities and it was critical that the DA2 site needed to mirror the energy efficiencies achieved at Maidstone. Reducing carbon footprint for end-user clients – with lower operating costs – were key drivers in this project. Maidstone uses five times less energy per kW of IT load than an average data centre – a challenge we were more than happy to accept and believe we have exceeded!”

Based on 500kW of cooling, the system is expected to use 106,766kwhrs/year. In comparison, a traditional chiller system would utilise in the region of 1,095,000kwhrs – resulting in a saving of over 90%. The system is also future-proofed, with the option for expansion into higher density cooling further down the line, as Custodian continues to grow and expand.

The Client –

Leading Packaging Manufacturer

The Challenge –

Issues Reaching Desired Process Temperature During Warmer Weather

The Solution –

Cooling System Incorporating Chiller, Free Cooler, Pipework & Pumps

A leading manufacturer and supplier of recyclable, flexible packaging solutions contacted us after experiencing issues with reaching their desired process temperature, in warmer weather.

Our Senior Sales Engineer, Mark Hopper explains how we helped them improve the reliability of their process cooling, future proofed their system for expansion and enabled them to make significant energy savings, every year.

Situation

As part of the manufacturing process, a water-cooled chiller with integrated free cooling is used to cool a gear box heat exchanger and cooling for air cooling rings, but in the summer months, the equipment struggles to maintain the required temperature.

In addition to this, full free cooling is only available at -3°C, meaning that a large proportion of free cooling isn’t being taken advantage of throughout the year – resulting in higher energy costs.

Due to the setup, the current system is preventing the manufacturer from growing production capacity and inconsistent process temperatures are creating more wastage and higher energy costs.

Solution

From our initial site survey and consultation, we determined that an additional 160kW of cooling duty was required to maintain the temperature of the gear box heat exchanger and identified that the galvanised pipework was causing water purity issues and blockages.

We designed a new system which included stainless steel pipework (lagged to prevent against thermal losses and condensation), pumps, a new chiller and a standalone free cooler with the existing chiller installed as a back-up.

The process requires the water temperature to be maintained at 16°C, so through the control panel, we set the free cooler to operate when the ambient temperature is up to 14°C, anything over this and a 3-way valve will divert, bypassing the free cooler. The internal chiller pump will then draw water from the process tank and cool it in the evaporator. The water is then driven back to the process by a dual inverter driven pump set.

To ensure a continued operation and cooling to the gear box heat exchanger, we installed the new system alongside the existing one. Once the chiller and free cooler had been commissioned and tested, we connected it to the gear box heat exchanger and removed the old system, including pipework.

To enable further cooling requirements to be easily and cost-effectively catered for in the future, we installed two full sized valves within the pipework.

Results

In just 12 weeks from receiving the enquiry, we had the equipment craned in and the new, more reliable cooling system installed, with capability for expansion.

We estimate that the free cooler will reduce running costs from £89,040 to £41,512, creating a saving of £47,528 per annum, as well as boosting the manufacturer’s green credentials.

You can download the full case study here.

For a client with a legacy cooling system, a full system upgrade gave them the opportunity to benefit from the latest in energy efficient cooling technology.

Our client, an end user, specialises in plastics blow moulding and initially asked Aqua to carry out an energy evaluation on their existing factory set up. Our engineering team then designed an upgraded system with estimated annual costs savings from reducing overall energy consumption. When it comes to energy calculations, we are completely transparent and pride ourselves on living up to our predicted savings.
The suggested upgrade centred around utilising highly efficient free cooling technology, alongside inverter driven pumps. New chiller units were added to two production lines – on the injection moulding side and the blow moulding. Based on our client’s annual production schedule, energy cost savings were forecast at over £70,000. The free cooling also reduces the run hours on the chiller units, increasing their overall life expectancy.

An additional advantage for our client from moving to the new system was the warranty, giving them peace of mind for the years ahead.
The full solution included:

Energy efficient design review with energy calculations
Free cooling chillers
Inverter driven pumps
Mechanical installation & final commissioning
Warranty
Aftersales support

“Our client had become exasperated with their old system, experiencing long lead-times from the manufacturer when they needed to source replacement parts and then discovering some spares had become obsolete. That said, I think the prospect of a full system upgrade initially made them nervous because of the anticipated costs involved. However, our energy review quickly established that upgrading their equipment would bring them so many advantages. As well as a very quick payback – less than 2 years – they will make significant energy and cost savings every year” explains Aqua Sales Manager, Shaun Lancaster.

Specialist engineers at Hampshire-based Aqua Group have transformed the floor panel manufacturing process for a leading flooring company after routine maintenance sparked the bespoke design of an innovative, energy-saving cooling solution.

Leading manufacturer of commercial floor coverings Polyflor, part of the James Halstead group, has installed Aqua’s new air-blast pre-cooler in its Stockton-on-Tees plant.

According to Aqua’s engineer Joe Konarski, Aqua’s new ground-breaking chiller system is likely to save Polyflor a minimum of £11,000 a year in reduced operating costs and energy savings and will bring added environmental benefits, not least by making the most of the free cooling capacities inherent in the new system.

Joe Konarski said:“Polyflor’s previous cooling process was under-performing because of damage caused by contaminated water particles in the old system’s evaporator so, when considering this problem, we realised we could devise an entirely new tailor-made cooling system for Polyflor that would be altogether more efficient and reliable.”

“Rather than simply being satisfied with a quick-fix or a temporary solution, we wanted to create a new solution altogether, one that would both benefit the client financially and provide an energy-efficient and environmentally-friendlier alternative.”

“The new system we designed for Polyflor currently cools the manufacturing process for one of the company’s flooring ranges — now we are adapting the new Aqua technology for use across Polyflor’s product range, effectively future-proofing our system for the benefit of this client and, potentially, other manufacturers employing similar process techniques,” added Joe.

Aqua’s design features an automatic ambient air pre-cooling system which massively reduces the refrigerated chiller compressor load in low ambient air temperatures. Over a year this reduces chiller electrical usage by approximately 65 per cent. When ambient temperatures are less than 8°C, the chiller compressors are de-activated, allowing Polyflor to benefit from complete free cooling.

The system design not only saves compressor energy but also reduces the mechanical load on the chillers, reducing on-going maintenance costs and enhancing the life-span of the equipment.

In addition, high-efficiency plate heat exchangers were also installed to allow the chillers and air-blast system to work on an independent ‘clean’ circuit. This is instrumental in avoiding a recurrence of the original operational problems affecting Polyflor’s Stockton-on-Tees cooling process where damage was caused by contaminated water particles in the system’s evaporators.