Controlled cooling of a data center

Abstract

A device for sensing at least one environmental condition in a data center. The device includes a chassis, a propelling mechanism, a power supply, a steering mechanism, and a controller supported on the chassis. The chassis also supports at least one environmental condition sensor and is operable to travel through the data center and sense at least one environmental condition at various locations throughout the data center.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE [0001] The present invention is related to pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 970,707, filed Oct. 5, 2001, and entitled “SMART COOLING OF DATA CENTERS”, by Patel et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates generally to cooling systems. More particularly, the invention pertains to a system for delivering controlled cooling in a data center. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] A data center may be defined as a location, e.g., room, that houses computer systems arranged in a number of racks. A standard rack may be defined as an Electronics Industry Association (EIA) enclosure, 78 in. (2 meters) wide, 24 in. (0.61 meter) wide and 30 in. (0.76 meter) deep. Standard racks may be configured to house a number of computer systems, e.g., about forty (40) systems, with future configurations of racks being designed to accommodate up to eighty (80) ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention relates to a device that can move through a data center and sense environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity. The device can also be equipped with a cooling system to adjust the temperature of the data center. The invention allows for efficient cooling of components in the data center based on real-time environmental data. The technical effects of the invention include improved efficiency in data center cooling and better sensing of environmental conditions."

Problems solved by technology

As such, the cooling of data centers presents problems in addition to those faced with the cooling of the racks.

In this respect, conventional cooling systems often attempt to cool components that may not be operating at a level which may cause its temperature to exceed a predetermined temperature range.

Consequently, conventional cooling systems often incur greater amounts of operating expenses than may be necessary to sufficiently cool the heat generating components contained in the racks of data centers.

Another problem associated with the cooling of data centers involves the expense and difficulty in measuring the environmental conditions, e.g., temperature, humidity, air flow, etc., within and around the racks.

Although it has been found that the use of temperature sensors, e.g., thermocouples, located at various locations throughout the data center has been a relatively accurate manner of detecting temperatures, this practice has also been found to be relatively restrictive due to the difficulty and costs associated with this implementation.

By way of example, the number of sensors required to detect the environmental conditions throughout the data center may require that a substantially inordinate number of sensors be implemented.

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