What is the best chimney for data centres?

There are several different methods of utilising flue accessories in data centres, a practitioner has highlighted.

One way of heating the sites is to adopt rack-based chimney containment, which enables heat from rack-mounted equipment to be captured and transferred through a chimney before it is ducted to the building's computer room air conditioner, a Data Centre article has explained.

The method can also be passive or active, meaning that it can be used with or without fans. These fans react depending on the temperature of rooms, so significant amounts of energy are saved.

Heating expert Carl Cotulli told the news provider: "Rack-based heat containment is extremely flexible because it does not require alteration of existing enclosure locations. Taken altogether this solution is highly compatible with many data centre needs."

Many specialists in the industry are now exploring new ways of conserving energy, which may mean that rack-based heat containment could be preferred by data centres.