How do I setup a Server Room in Sefaira?

Often, your building will contain a room which has a load profile which is quite different to an occupied room. For example, a server room or comms room where cooling loads are required 24/7 and perhaps multiples of other rooms cooling loads.

Ideally, this room would have its own system which you can control in specific detail. For example, a CRAC unit.

There is no perfect system to choose but you can use a workaround which should be sufficient for conceptual stage analysis. The list below is the current HVAC system list in Sefaira and does not contain a CRAC unit system.

Setup

Currently, the best way to setup a room like this would be to make the following changes to your settings.  

• First, go to the zoning tab and select the One Zone per Room zoning strategy. 

• Next, setup your diversity profiles to 24/7 by adjusting the Internal Loads and HVAC System Operating to both 7 days per week. Also change the diversity schedule to be 100% for all hours. 

• Also change the Equipment Power Density to it's highest setting, then save these settings as a new template. You can read more about Space Use templates here. 

• Lastly, switch back to the zoning tab and change the space use for the room to your new template. 

 Getting Results 

• Follow the Grouping Workaround to run for Server Room only and then the rest of the building before merging the results.
  • For the Server Room baseline, in the zoning tab ignore all the rooms but the server room. 
  • For the Rest of Building baseline, in the zoning tab ignore the server room only. 
• In this instance, we use a FCU system with a high COP for the 2,153ft² ton server room with a very high equipment load. The rest of the building is a VAV system. We can then see the loads and consumption associated with each section and the building as a whole.
• In this case, the Cooling Equipment Design Capacity is 16.6 ton, of which a third comes from the Server Room.  

Known Issue 

• Do not use a VRF system in a country with very cold winters.
  • The VRF system, as it is currently setup, will not provide cooling in any zone when the outside temperature is below 21.2°F (-6°C).