Fujitsu VRF system was chosen to replace the existing data centre cooling system at Openwave Mobility’s Belfast site.

There was an existing air-con solution in the primary datacentre that was 11years old and no longer able to provide sufficient capacity to cool the space. There were frequent compressor failures and with only three outdoor systems there was insufficient redundancy and cooling capacity to be effective in the datacentre environment.

Openwave’s project brief was simple: to provide an efficient, reliable and cost-effective solution to the aging and problematic systems on site, with energy efficiency being a priority.

Five VRF systems in total with three indoors per system were selected, staging the indoors in such a way that each server rack will have more than one system cooling it to prevent hot spots in the event of failure, and, added additional duty, with the total cooling capacity being 210kw. Mechanical ventilation was added alongside the Fujitsu VRF, providing free cooling to help with the heat load and to further reduce the running costs.

kWh meters were installed to monitor power consumption, and thus providing the end-user with the proof that the newly installed VRF systems were as efficient as the design calculations indicated. Based on a HAWK meter reading, the systems were sitting at 35 KVA load for the datacentre air-conditioning. Openwave were able to confirm a monthly saving of £1.4k which is a massive 40% reduction.

The installation was carried out in the cooler months between September and February, with the out-door units being piped into the room before doing the switch over, meaning Openwave were only ever 3-4 days without full capacity

The new data centre cooling system was installed by Coolair Refrigeration & Air-conditioning (NI).