A white paper the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is calling the first vendor-neutral thermal guideline for liquid-cooled data-processing environments is available for free download.

“2011 Thermal Guidelines for Liquid Cooled Data Processing Environments” creates liquid-cooling classes enabling full-time economizers for a number of applications in many climates, Don Beaty, chair of the publications subcommittee of ASHRAE Technical Committee (TC) 9.9, Mission Critical Facilities, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment, said.

The classes are:

• W1, facility water-supply temperature of 2 C to 17 C.  

• W2, facility water-supply temperature of 2 C to 27 C.  

• W3, facility water-supply temperature of 2 C to 32 C.  

• W4, facility water-supply temperature of 2 C to 45 C.  

• W5, facility water-supply temperature greater than 45 C.

The white paper also provides insight into other considerations for liquid cooling, including condensation, operation, water-flow rate, pressure, velocity, and quality, as well as information on interface connections and infrastructure heat-rejection devices.

The white paper follows “2011 Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments – Expanded Data Center Classes and Usage Guidance,” released in May, which addresses air cooling in data centers and creates new data-center environmental classes, expanding the opportunity for chillerless data centers (full-time economizers).