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Views: 95 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-08-25 Origin: Site
For over 20 years, the data center cabinet colors seem to have defaulted to standard black or dark gray. While some data centers are using white cabinets as an alternative. Is this simply a change in aesthetics Or is it a practical consideration?
From a light perspective, intuitively speaking. Darker cabinet surfaces absorb more light, while lighter cabinet surfaces reflect more light;
This improves the overall lighting level and requires fewer lamps, which reduces the continuous lighting power load. In addition, staff can more easily observe and inspect the equipment inside the cabinet, which invariably reduces operating costs again.
Is there a theoretical basis for this claim?
For further evaluation, a foreign team (Panduit Corporate Research & Development) used Autodes'desk Revieratere and MEP software, as well as lighting analysis software Elim Tool to create a 500 square foot (465 square meters) virtual model of a data center for illumination testing, as shown in the figure.
Illuminance test: Illuminance refers to the degree to which an object is illuminated and is expressed in terms of luminous flux per unit area, expressed in luxlx, i.e. 1m/m2. Illuminance is measured in terms of luminous flux received from a vertical surface, and decreases if illuminated at an angle;
In the virtual model, all aisles between cabinets are 4 feet (120 cm) wide and 4 feet (120 cm) deep. Lighting is provided by 2' x 4' (60cm x 120cm) T8 fluorescent lamps that are mounted in the ceiling in line with the center of each aisle. The floor and wall reflectance values of the room were set to gray and the ceiling was set to white.
Measurement points: Measure simulated light levels or illuminance on the floor and at 30 inches (76 cm) above the floor
First, researchers created two scenarios of black and white cabinets, in which simulated light levels or illuminance were measured at ground level and 30 inches (76 cm) above the ground, respectively.
The results showed that the illumination levels in the center of the hot and cold aisles and on both sides of the end wall aisles in the data center were lower than the illumination levels at the ends of the hot and cold aisles; in addition, the use of white cabinets increased the illumination levels in all measured areas by 56% in the center of the hot and cold aisles and by 32% in the remaining monitored areas.
