Challenge:

Williams-Sonoma’s 20,000 sq. ft. data center in Rocklin, CA was not meeting cooling requirements with 6 running CRAC units. They had three 20-ton CRAC units and three 30-ton CRAC units in use, and without improving cooling efficiency they were going to have to install another 30-ton unit in order to sufficiently cool their data center.

Solution:

Williams-Sonoma contacted Instor to employ cold aisle containment and airflow efficiency solutions. Instor began by containing 12 pods with Seal Tech’s clear seiden crystal classA-1 fire rated curtains and a custom engineered retractable ceiling.

The retractable ceiling, manufactured by Cooler Bytes, is self contained and designed to roll back onto itself in case of fire. The clear vinyl roof is mounted with a fuse link on one side and is able to retract with a spring-loaded wheel on the other. We tied the retractable ceiling into the EPO fire suppression system with resettable electronic fuse links.

Instor engineered custom rear cabinet doors with a cooling vent fin designed to push exhaust heat up, allowing it to return to the CRAC unit faster. We also sealed off over 80 holes of varying shapes and sizes in the 18” raised floor with customized Sealeze brush grommets. Instor installed a facility management system from Geist to control and monitor all CRAC units remotely and set up thermal sensors within each pod to enable observation of the server temperatures in real time. In addition, Instor set up power meters at transfer switches and PDUs, and Williams-Sonoma is currently implementing Server Tech POPS units as they replace cabinets so they can monitor and control power on the outlet level as well.

Benefits:

Williams-Sonoma spent $90,000 for CRAC modifications and containment. They received $25,000 in PG&E rebates and continue to save $12,000 per month on power (at 10 cents/ kilowatt) with an ROI of less than 6 months. With the RLE monitoring Williams-Sonoma is able to get a true PUE reading and consistently monitor data center conditions.