Before you answer that question with an emphatic “No,” let’s clarify what we’re asking here. While it’s likely that your data center is adequately cooled, in the sense that each server’s inlet temperature is within ASHRAE guidelines, it’s possible that you have much more cooling capacity than you actually need.

Think about it this way, given that 1 ton of cooling mitigates roughly 3.5 kW of heat (power) in the data center, and you have an IT load of 125 kW, then the required cooling is about 36 tons (125/3.5). It’s likely then that you’re actual cooling capacity is at least double that, for redundancy. This is a very important point. We in the data center industry plan for failure and will have redundancy of N+1, N+2, and so on. We can’t tell you what is right or what is best, every data center has to make their own decision on this, but we can perhaps get you to look at it a little bit differently.

Using the same example as above, let’s say you have 148 tons of actual cooling and are planning for N+2 redundancy. Well, that means you have about 40 tons of extra cooling (148-108). Is that what you planned for?

For more information on cooling capacity, check out our recent webinar titled, Can Your Data Center Become Energy Efficient?, presented by Kevin Kent of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. This webinar is part of our 4^th Annual Airflow Management Awareness Month webinar series.