This project’s primary focus was to upgrade the cooling capacity within one of the buildings main critical areas. With this, supporting infrastructure such as exterior earthwork and landscaping had to be completed to create a new secured condenser yard for the seven new Liebert condensing units associated with the seven new Liebert CRAC units.
The new CRAC units replaced old, existing CRAC units which had reached their "end of life". These CRAC units provided critical cooling for one of the network spaces in this building. With this, all new refrigerant pipe had to be installed to accommodate the increased cooling performance and the location of the new condensing units. The refrigerant pipe had to be routed across the roof, down the building into the newly built condenser yard. The refrigerant pipe along with associated electrical and controls conduit had to be routed on top of pipe supports on the roof, and on ground level.
Along with the seven larger CRAC units, we also installed four smaller Liebert units which replaced similar cooling units located in other critical areas of this building. These units had also reached their "end of life".
Due to the installation of these units taking place in a critical, live facility, we had to complete the installation in phases of day and night work. During the day phase of the project, all the supporting infrastructure to install the new CRAC units was completed. This included setting and installing the condensers, all associated refrigerant pipe, conduit and controls. Maintaining cooling throughout the CRAC unit swap was the most critical component of this project. During the maintenance window, we completed one CRAC unit change out at a time to ensure N+1 cooling was maintained in all critical rooms. Due to the amount of preparation and time spent getting the site ready, we were able to remove and replaced one unit per week including startup. This allowed the new CRAC unit to operate seamlessly with the existing teamwork mode while we worked to replace the other CRAC units in the lineup.
