Tate has published a white paper that identifies server leakage as a large potential source of bypass air in contained cold aisles. Tate conducted a study of 10 servers from five leading manufacturers and found the servers will leak cold air into the hot aisle at a rate of 23 to 135 percent of their designed flow rate, when a positive static pressure is experienced at the server inlet. Leakage at these rates will significantly impact annual energy costs to operate data centers.
In response to these findings, Tate is expanding its product offering for the data center market with SmartAire P, a pressure sensing, automatic variable-air-volume damper that minimizes bypass airflow through servers, racks and other containment structures.