Cooling
Chillers, cold aisles, perforated tiles, thermal view and HVAC upgrades.
Every watt your servers draw turns into heat. Removing that heat efficiently is the key to a profitable and reliable datacenter.
The equipment
- CRAC units / chillers: produce cold air or chilled water. Buy them from the bottom bar (“+CRAC”) or in build mode. Boost mode cools harder, at the cost of higher power draw.
- Contained cold aisles: separate the cold air (in front of the racks) from the hot air (behind them). They sharply lower the temperature and the PUE.
- Perforated tiles: bring cold air from the raised floor up to the foot of the racks.
Diagnostic tools
- T Thermal view: colors the room by temperature. Red areas are your hot spots.
- F Airflow: shows how the air circulates.
Tip
Place racks in rows facing each other, put a cold aisle between them and perforated tiles at their feet: that's how real datacenters are laid out.
Climate matters
The outdoor temperature of each campus affects your needs. In Iceland (3 °C), free cooling cools almost for free; in Paris, you'll rely more on your chillers. See Campuses.
All facility upgrades
HV substation
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 2 EcoDesign Amorphous Transformer | $2,400 | No-load losses cut by 70%, PUE improved by -0.04 |
| SF6 High-Speed Breaker (15 ms) | $1,800 | 15 ms breaking time, grid stability locked at 100% |
| AHF 400V Active Harmonic Filter | $1,500 | THD-I < 2%, power margin increased by +25 kW |
| Continuous DGA Dielectric Oil Analysis | $1,200 | 24/7 predictive diagnostics, nominal status guaranteed |
| Automatic Capacitor Bank (cos φ = 0.99) | $1,600 | Reactive power compensation, +35 kW of usable power |
Battery storage (BESS)
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ultra-Durable LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) Cells | $2,800 | SoH health locked at 100%, 6,000 cycles, zero thermal runaway |
| Bidirectional Active Cell Balancing BMS | $1,400 | Usable runtime increased by +25% (+15 min) |
| Dedicated Cabinet Thermal Control (Peltier 20°C) | $1,100 | Keeps battery trays at a constant 20°C, zero self-discharge |
| In-Rack Pyrotechnic Aerosol Extinguisher Module | $1,600 | Instant self-contained chemical suppression per cabinet |
| Extra 800V DC High-Voltage String (+1 String) | $2,200 | +1 redundant BESS string, +20 minutes of runtime |
UPS units
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Silicon Carbide Power Modules (SiC MOSFET 1200V) | $3,200 | UPS efficiency raised to 99.2%, PUE -0.05 |
| Modular N+1 Hot-Swap 50 kVA Architecture | $2,500 | Absolute fault tolerance, replacement without downtime |
| Ultra-Fast Static Transfer Switch STS (2 ms) | $1,900 | Switches path A / path B in under 2 ms without a micro-outage |
| SNMPv3 / Modbus IP Cyber-Secured Gateway | $950 | Real-time encrypted telemetry, +20 req/s network throughput |
Generators
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent Engine Block Preheating (Block Heater 45°C) | $1,200 | Load pickup cut from 15 s to 6 seconds |
| Redundant Dual Electric Starter (2x 24V) | $1,700 | Two independent starter banks, 100% reliability |
| Continuous Fuel Polishing & Dehydration System | $1,400 | Continuous 2-micron filtration, fuel consumption cut by 15% |
| Hospital-Grade Silencer & 65 dBA Acoustic Enclosure | $2,100 | 65 dBA noise attenuation, reputation +0.2 stars |
| Buried Double-Wall Tank Extension (+5,000 Liters) | $2,800 | Total capacity raised to 15,000 L (>72 h of continuous runtime) |
Air conditioning (HVAC)
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| EC Electronically Commutated Fans (Brushless IE4) | $1,600 | CRAC power draw -25%, PUE -0.03 |
| Proportional EEV Electronic Expansion Valves | $1,400 | Thermal control to a tenth of a degree, racks -3°C |
| High-Efficiency Aluminum Micro-Channel Exchangers | $2,200 | +10 kW of thermal capacity per CRAC cabinet |
| Dynamic Raised-Floor Differential Pressure Sensors | $1,100 | Plenum pressure stabilized at +30 Pa, racks -2°C |
Loading dock
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Dust-Free Decompression Airlock & Decontamination Mat | $1,500 | ISO 8 classification, disk failure rate -50% |
| High-Precision 42U Electric Server Lift | $1,800 | Effortless handling, faster node installation |
| 24h Pre-Deployment Burn-In & Stress-Test Bench | $2,000 | Memory and GPU stress test beforehand, +15% node throughput |
Fire protection
| Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| High-Sensitivity VESDA Laser-Plus Detector | $1,900 | Detection from 0.001% obs/m, alert 60 s before a flame |
| Eco-Friendly 3M Novec 1230 Fluid Conversion | $2,600 | Zero global warming potential (GWP=1), instant evacuation |
| Cold Aisle Overpressure Regulator (+35 Pa) | $1,300 | Absolute airtight containment against outside smoke |
Try it in the game
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