RefPlus and Kelvin-Emtech for Noise Reduction project
EXISTING DATA CENTER RESULT
Substantial noise reduction in a very populated urban environment. The end result was a noise reduction from 85 dba to 51 dba from across the street, where a high-rise condominium project was being constructed.
APPLICATION
Large data center with multiple switching stations located in a dense residential area in downtown Montreal.
CUSTOMER INFORMATION
Kelvin-Emtech, a leading consulting engineering firm specialized in the field of critical electro-mechanical systems requiring a 24/7 operation related to continuous services of a computer room. The end-user is a national cable and telephone operator.
THE CHALLENGE
The end-user, who was operating this site for many years was forced by the city to reduce the noise produced by multiple condensers on the roof of his building. Since a large high-rise condominium project was being built across the street with floors above the existing condensers on the roof, the city of Montreal requested the end-user to significantly reduce the noise levels to 51 dba, a reduction of 34 dba in a very short time frame.
The end-user called in on Kelvin-Emtech who in turn called in on RefPlus to reach a solution for this problem. After investigating, RefPlus determined that equipment upgrades could be performed within the requested time frame to meet the city noise requirement, while keeping the system capacity and also introducing substantial energy savings.
REFPLUS SOLUTION
The existing condensers used one to four 3/4 HP (1140 RPM) motors, with 26” (660mm) fans all running continuously when on demand. The facility has 99 motors on 29 condensers on the roof.
RefPlus designed, in record time, a special acoustic plenum that fit the existing condensers and used the most modern variable speed/ECM Ziehl Abegg motors running at 700 RPM maximum with 31.5” (800mm) fan blades. The units were provided with fan cycling and variable speed controllers, such that only the required number of fans are now operating at optimal speed. With this new design the end-user was able to meet the city requirement of 51 dba at maximum speed.
Moreover, as an added bonus, the new RefPlus design allowed the end-user to achieve significant energy savings. The original motors consumed 750 watts, 100% of the year. The new ECM motors and RefPlus design now consumes between 70 watts and 700 watts at maximum speed (over 90°F). The estimated energy savings are of approximately $50,000.00/year, a benefit over and above the customer requirement.
