Cooling System Configurator

Nearly all electricity consumed by IT equipment becomes heat, and the cooling system must remove the same amount. This page estimates cooling capacity, airflow, chilled-water flow and cooling power per cooling method to size CRAC / liquid-cooling equipment.

Input parameters

Air-cooling suits low/medium density rooms (<15 kW/rack)
kW
See “effective IT load” on the Power page
°C (air)
W/W
Higher COP saves energy; climate and outdoor temperature strongly affect air-cooling COP

Cooling method comparison

MethodSuitable densityTypical COPFeatures
Conventional air< 15 kW/rack2.5 – 3.5Mature, for ordinary rooms
Indirect evaporative< 20 kW/rack3.5 – 5.0Uses ambient free cooling, saves water & power
Liquid cold plate20 – 100 kW/rack5.0 – 7.0Mainstream for AI compute; some air-cooling still needed
Immersion100+ kW/rack4.5 – 6.0Extreme density; needs dielectric fluid & tanks

Results

Cooling capacity needed
— kW
Cooling power draw
— kW
Airflow required
— m³/h
CHW flow
— m³/h
Annual cooling energy
— MWh/yr
Cooling tons RT
— RT
Cooling (kW) ≈ IT load (kW)
Airflow (m³/h) = cooling (kW) × 3600 ÷ (1.2 × 1.005 × ΔT°C)
CHW flow (m³/h) = cooling (kW) × 3600 ÷ (4.18 × 1000 × ΔT°C)
Cooling power (kW) = cooling (kW) ÷ COP  1 RT ≈ 3.517 kW

Cooling architecture reference

CRAC→ Cold-aisle supply→ IT equipment→ Hot-aisle return
Use hot/cold aisle containment (closed cold aisle); supply air 18–27°C (ASHRAE A1) significantly cuts fan energy.

Equipment sizing reference

Auto-matches mainstream cooling equipment from the cooling demand above. Capacities are typical ratings; final selection per vendor manual; unit counts include the chosen redundancy.

Cooling demand — kW ≈ — RT Redundancy

Air-cooled precision CRAC (air / indirect-evap reference)

Brand / series
Recommended modelSensible cap. / unitUnitsTotal sensibleInput power / unitTotal input powerNote