What is precision air conditioning and why is it necessary?

Telemarketing & Call Center Solutions, Sep 1997 by Baer, Dan

Reliability and standby capacity are of great importance in system design and equipment selection. Equipment should be selected to provide "N I" reliability. In other words, if a single air conditioner is selected to carry the load, a second air conditioner must be available as standby. And in larger sites it could be just as acceptable when two units are selected to carry the load to have a third unit as standby. Dual unit control (DUC) systems provide an electrical timer-based control that switches the operating sequence of two air conditioning units on a one-, two-, four- or eight-day basis. DUCs should contain a two-stage heat/two-stage cool thermostat with individual heat and cool levers. The thermostat's heat anticipators should be adjustable, and the cool anticipators should be fixed. Indication of the lead unit and power from unit one or unit two should be prominently displayed.

Finally, the air conditioner should be designed specifically "for" communications applications, not adapted "to" communications applications. Choose a product that provides the design specifications, convenience and reliability to maintain cleanliness, trouble-free operation and easy maintenance in unattended and remote locations.

Quality environmental protection for sensitive telecommunications systems starts with an air conditioner designed from the ground up to cool equipment space, not people space. This requires a high sensible cooling capacity and rugged components for around-the-clock operation. From there, requirements include:

* Sensitive controls to maintain precise temperature and humidity,

* Small footprint, or no footprint at all, so the system can fit inside crowded equipment rooms,

* Flexible applications and easy installation that doesn't require heavy construction just to assemble and connect the system.

Also, look for these ranges of options and configurations when considering purchasing precision air conditioning equipment:

* Your choice of a self-contained or split system,

* Upflow or downflow air distribution,

* A choice of air cooled, water cooled, chilled water, glycol or energy saving GLYCOOL configurations,

* Optional humidifiers in three technologies: steam, infrared or low-energy ultrasonic.

Dan Baer is vice president for Liebert Environmental Products. Liebert is ISO-9001 certified and provides a complete range of products and services for the communications industry. With more than one million power and environmental control systems installed throughout more than 100 countries, Liebert is a leading supplier of computer support systems, a supplier of precision air conditioning and power protection systems. Its support systems are designed to protect information processing operations.