The deployment and demonstration of a super performance indirect evaporative cooler in real-life data centres

Energy-efficient cooling and ventilation is critical to reduce carbon emissions and cut energy bills, especially for traditional data centres, which use around 20% of global data centre energy demand. This paper presents the latest deployment demonstration projects using the super performance dew point cooling technology in real life data centre businesses. With over 15-years’ continuous endeavour, the researchers at the University of Hull have developed a specialised indirect evaporative cooler which has achieved a COP of 52.5 in the laboratory setting. With the super performance cooler tested in laboratory in 2021, the authors have applied and demonstrated the technology in two real-life data centres to meet the peak cooling demand of up to 100 kW. This was the first project which applied the technology to real-world business in a relatively large scale, which has generated surprising results that were highly valuable and interesting to share with peers working in the field of low carbon technologies, especially the sustainable heating and cooling area. This paper covers the latest findings from the project, including the innovations, the project, the demonstration system, energy performance, real life data and results, as well as the project learnings.