The UK’s leading distributor of plumbing and heating products, Wolseley UK, has won the Data Centre Cooling Impact category at the RAC Cooling Industry Awards for its European Data Centre.
Supported by FM company Cloudfm, Wolseley UK took an innovative approach to cooling its new custom built data centre in Leamington Spa. It was decided at the building stage that the design inlet temperature would be 27°c, the upper limit of current Ashrae guidelines, rather than the usual 22°c. Working at this heat has been shown to prolong the life of servers, as well as opening up the market in terms of available product.
Within the first 12 months of implementing the changes, Wolseley UK achieved eight per cent above their anticipated reduction in energy demand, and reduced electricity usage by 11 per cent.
Cloudfm played a central role in the planning and commissioning stages of the project. Director of Technical Consultancy at Cloudfm, Derrick Hidden and his team had previously worked on Wolseley UK’s new eco head office, rated BREEAM Excellent, and were therefore well placed to help deliver the ambitious targets for the data centre.
Wolseley UK was able to integrate its systems with the Cloudfm portal to enable BMES and BMS, delivering an intelligent reactive service that used analytics to set rules, monitor and check air balancing. This played a crucial role in helping to regulate temperature levels through effective maintenance, achieved by planned monthly visits from Cloudfm’s multi-skilled engineers.
Wolseley UK’s National Facilities and Property Compliance Manager John Page explains: “Cloudfm made it possible for us to address spikes in energy quickly and maintain all necessary components, essentially future-proofing the data centre. Their expertise and support at every stage of this project was essential to its success – we’ve done something completely different and achieved significant energy and cost savings as a result.”
Derrick Hidden Cloudfm Group Technical Consultancy Director agrees, stating, “This type of project highlights what can be achieved though innovative planning and effective maintenance. It’s great to have been an active part of the process from start to finish, and this award serves as a reflection on how the rest of the industry views Wolseley UK’s achievement.”