A look at a deployment of AST Modular's Natural Free Cooling containerized solution in Sydney, Australia.

AST Modular recently helped a data center customer in Sydney, Australia expand its capacity with a double-decker containerized solution that added 17 racks cooled by outside air. The installation featured one 40-foot container filled with racks of servers, supported by AST’s Modular Natural Free Cooling Technology, a cooling module that sits atop the IT container. AST says the unit achieves an actual metered Power Usage Effectiveness of 1.09. The climate in Sydney allows the customer to use indirect airside economizers (free cooling) for 92 percent of the year. The system is controlled by management software that can switch between several modes of cooling: 100 percent free cooling at temperatures below 19° C (66 degrees F), partial economization with the use of adiabatic cooling, or mechanical cooling for temperatures approximately above 26° C (78 degrees F). This video provides an overview of AST’s Natural Free Cooling design, with illustrations of airflow and the air-to-air heat exchanger. It runs about 5 minutes, 30 seconds.