Reference example DMK Deutschen Milchkontor GmbH

“In short – we are thrilled”

Joachim Hagenah, DMK – Director of
the Hardware/Networks Department

Long term deployment with top results

Our customer, DMK Deutsches Milchkontor GmbH, gives the best proof.

eChiller has been deployed at the Seckenhausen site near Bremen since the end of 2014 to dissipate the excess heat of a server room to the outside via an air-cooled dry cooler.

eChiller operation in data center 1

Key figures for the reference year 2015 and 2016 – eChiller field test model

Task: Dissipate server room waste heat to the surrounding environment
Cooling: Air cooled dry cooler
Cooling requirement: Constant 25 kW
Overall generated cooling energy: 330 MWh
Target temperature: 25 to 26 °C in the cold aisle in front of the racks
Annual COP (2016): 26 kWh cooling energy / kWh electrical energy (factor 6 over the annual COP of the redundant R410A chiller)
Energy savings: >80 %

 

The cooling requirement of the application was approx. 25 kW throughout the year with an air temperature of 25 to 26 °C to be maintained in the cold aisle in front of the racks. As is usual in such applications, redundancy was built in – here in the form of a standard refrigeration unit with R410A and free cooling energy.

This facilitated a direct comparison of energy consumption by the two units, which were operated in parallel throughout the entire test period. It was thus possible to assess the influence of various climatic conditions on the respective consumption of energy.

Generated cooling capacity in data center 1:

Interim result in data center 1:

In 2015 and 2016, the installed eChillers provided a total cooling energy of 330 MWh. The average coefficient of performance over the year was approx. 26 kWh cooling capacity per kWh energy consumed, placing the COP a factor of 6 higher than that of the backup system installed on site.

Motivated by this success, a further eChiller was deployed to another server room at the same site in August 2015. This server room also had a 100 % backup system based on a conventional refrigeration unit.

 

eChiller operation in data center 2

Key figures for the reference year August – December 2016

Task: Dissipate server room waste heat to the surrounding environment
Cooling: Air cooled dry cooler
Cooling requirement: Constant 11 kW
Overall generated cooling energy: 137 MWh
Target temperature: 25 to 26 °C in the cold aisle in front of the racks
Annual COP (2016): 14 kWh cooling energy / kWh electrical energy
Energy savings: >80 %

 

Generated refrigeration capacity in data center 2:

Interim result in data center 2:

From the time the second eChiller went online until December 2016, it produced 137 MWh of cooling energy, with an annual COP of 14 kWh cooling energy / kWh electrical energy in the year 2016.

Current status of the eChiller systems:

Following the positive experience from the field test with the first eChiller model at DMK, the two systems were replaced in May 2016 with the latest eChiller model.

The exchange and commissioning of the new model on site went smoothly.

As expected, the new eChiller systems have been cooling the two highly efficient DMK computing centers without failure since mid-May. Currently they are handling a maximum refrigeration capacity of approx. 30 kW to ensure a maximum supply air temperature of 26 °C.