The cost of reducing the data centre noise from the air conditioning system chillers on the roof of a large multi-storey facility to meet the requirements of the Local Authority had been quoted as costing over £300,000 using conventional acoustic barriers and silencers. Fitting these acoustic screens round the chillers would have required:
- additional structural steelwork to cater for wind loading
- considerable planning (closing streets and bringing in cranes)
These proposed noise control measures would also have reduced the cooling capacity of the HVAC system, increasing running costs. The data centre communications company involved approached us in the hope that we might have a better idea.
We did...
Following very careful analysis of the noise sources and layout of the air conditioning plant and some lateral thinking, we designed an elegant solution involving a combination of:
- engineering control at source,
- innovative local acoustic treatments
- imaginative use of site geometry
- modifications to the chiller control system
The result was a set of modifications that were easy to implement in convenient stages and reduced the data centre AHU noise by 15dB(A) at a cost of c £40,000 – and with no effect on the normal operation or the overall efficiency of the system - unlike the previously proposed conventional noise barriers and silencers.
How to attenuate the noise from data centers
More details of the best approach to reducing the noise from chillers and air conditioning plant >
