Temperature-rise suppression techniques during commercial power outages in data centers

An Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) is typically used to supply power to IT equipment in data centers so critical telecommunications services are not disrupted in the event of a power outage. When a data center loses power, the IT equipment continues to operate on emergency UPS power, but the temperature inside the data center begins to rise because the air conditions stop running. Modern IT equipment produce tremendous heat loads, so temperatures in data centers rise very quickly in the event of an unexpected power disruption. A number of temperature-rise suppression techniques have been evolved, but they vary in their effectiveness and ease of deployment. Management is thus forced to choose from among these techniques based on the heat density in the data center. This study illuminates the relationship between heat density and the temperature-rise suppression techniques that are available by investigating two temperature-rise suppression schemes - aisle containment and powering air conditioners with a UPS - in a simulated data center environment.