Welcome to the second installment of my blog articles giving you a behind the scenes look at what it is like to work with Future-tech. When I last visited site, the modular room was in its final stages of construction and the space looked more like an empty lunch box than a mission critical facility. The larger office refurbishment had only just started and the basement was a quiet area with just Future-tech working in it. Now the refurbishment is in full swing our build area is in a very busy environment and when I returned to site this time in and around the room was a hive of activity. Both Future-tech and other none related contractors scurrying around and cracking on with their tasks. The empty white box I had seen two weeks before was now looking well on the way to being a data centre facility.
On my arrival the Future-tech team was busy inside and a number of Perenco’s office outfitters were looking in. Perenco’s lead consultant on the office relocation project even commented to our Perenco contact “They’re building a palace for you down here”. It’s fair to say the room is beginning to look like a proper micro data centre environment. It’s great to see the facility coming along so quickly and everything going to plan. I’ve tried to capture as much as possible with my photos of the site but I have included a list of what’s new since my last visit:
What’s new:
- Raised access flooring
- 3 x Stulz AHU
- 2 x Borri UPS
- 6 x APC NetShelter Cabinets
- Power distribution boards
- Custom made fire riser
- Fire suppression pipework
- And lots and lots of wiring
One of the most striking new additions were the Stulz air handling units sat on the left as I walked into the room. Its one thing seeing them on the drawings but to see them fitted is quite another. We selected a front discharge solution, flooding the room with air, in conjunction with hot aisle containment and a ceiling return air plenum. This is because we had a tight slab to slab height and a traditional down flow system could not fit without compromising the size of the delivery and return air plenums. This would have resulted in a greater level of resistance in the system and the AHU fans would have to work harder than necessary. For more information about aisle containment and how the decision to go hot aisle contained read our article on 5 Considerations when Choosing a Solution.
We have “oversized” the air handling units because the condensers have to be located 95mtrs away on the roof of the building. There were a number of solutions we presented to Perenco when it came to the cooling solution and condenser location. However due to some very tough planning restrictions in the Kensington & Chelsea area all external plant had to go on the roof. We then worked back from this constraint and settled on oversized DX air handling front discharge equipment. We did also look at a chilled water system but on this size of facility it was price prohibitive.
Week five will see the false ceiling and lighting installed, and the fire system finished. Then we will be expecting the aisle containment system to arrive.
If you have any questions surrounding the design and construction of data centres or would like a consultation on your data centre feel free to contact me at rstacey@future-tech.co.uk