University avoids air conditioning failure through the installation of a standby cooling system

Careful planning was required installing a standby cooling system into a University’s data centre protecting critical servers and important data processing facilities.

​Our brief from the client

This work was carried out by Aster Maintenance for a University in London. The task was to install backup cooling equipment in each of their 3 server rooms.
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Past experience had taught them that in the event of a server room cooling equipment failure, spares were not always immediately available. This left them with a choice of either keeping a large stock of spares on site, with the chance that many of them would never be used, or installation of a backup cooling system for each server room.

Solution chosen

The University opted to install backup cooling systems, and Aster Maintenance were chosen to install them.

We installed a Mitsubishi split a/c unit in each server room, which presented challenges due to the restricted space available. Further challenges were overcome in running the pipework to the external condensers, through older buildings with room layout constraints.

We also had to install new power supplies to each of the new units.

All the work had to take place in the summer break between Semesters, meaning that careful planning of each activity was essential. The work was carried out during the space of a single week and commissioned successfully, leading to a satisfied client.
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The client now has standby cooling readily available, which can be switched over by their own Facilities Manager. This gives a much quicker response time to problems with the main systems than was formerly available.