Blog: In search of treasure and redemption: Inaugural Lecture at the University of Birmingham by Professor John Dyson

“My apprenticeship has shown me what's possible and given me the ambition to go on and do a university degree.

Designing with the detail of assembly in mind, and making sure that M&E engineers work closely with architects and structural engineers, we deliver built assets with performance as part of their DNA.And nowhere is this more relevant than in data centre design.. A data centre is about performance above all – minimising cost per kW, maximising IT yield per square metre, minimising energy and water consumption, maximising the efficiency of M&E building services, and minimising waste..

There are standard ways to address all of these value drivers, and many companies to do that.But to really raise the bar on what can be achieved with data centre design and M&E services, it’s essential to understand the mechanical and electrical systems, the architecture and the structure as being intimately interconnected and fully interdependent.Each of these facets must work in harmony to maximise the potential for optimal data centre design and that is impossible to do when the project is divided up and these areas are treated separately..

It is, however, possible to achieve through an integrated design approach and.Data centres developments have baseline costs like utilities, land, civils and structure...

So the more data centre capacity you can fit onto your site, the more IT yield per square metre you will get, and the lower your cost per kW will be.. As data centre designers, we must aim to maximise the site yield.

Here’s how we can do this:.Compared to free cooling, mechanical cooling requires substantial electrical input, which ultimately contributes to more heat being rejected.

This can further increase water consumption if the heat rejection plant utilises adiabatic cooling.. Reducing the mechanical cooling demand.The obvious, although usually impractical, way would be to locate the data centre in a colder climate where the average temperature is lower, allowing for free cooling to operate for longer and reducing the mechanical cooling hours operated.

This won't be practical for most data centre operators due to cost, land, power and connectivity availability.. A more practical way to reduce the mechanical cooling demand is by increasing the air/water temperature supplied to the data hall.For example, migrating to ASHRAE A1 Allowable temperature range from ASHRAE A1 Recommended during peak external ambient conditions could reduce OPEX considerably.. ASHRAE Environmental Classes (Allowable) for Data Centres.