Humideco

At the Department of Work and Pensions data centre in Blackpool, Humideco have installed low-energy ultrasonic humidifiers, replacing the original electric steam humidifier units on a number of air handling units.

Control of air humidity is an important requisite for the data centre environment. When the relative humidity falls below 40%rh, there is a corresponding rise in the  risk of data loss from static electrical discharges.

As the data centre air conditioning cools almost constantly, the original steam humidifiers were adding to the heat load - not only were the units themselves expensive to run in terms of the energy they consumed, they were also increasing the cost of cooling.

The benefits of the newly installed ultrasonic humidifiers are twofold: firstly the electrical power consumed is less than 10% that of the original units, and secondly, the cooling achieved as the ultrasonic mist evaporates aids the cooling process.

All in all, the ultrasonic humidifiers have reduced the electrical loading by 100kw, and the resultant savings will pay for the installation in less than 2 years.