Imaging suites now run AI inference nodes alongside PACS servers. EHR platforms support clinical decision support and analytics that did not exist when the original system was designed. Much of this equipment sits in department server rooms and data rooms planned years ago for a lighter, cooler load, in buildings where adding a cooling plant is difficult.
The result is hot spots in racks that were never meant to hold GPU-equipped servers, and room cooling working at its limit in spaces that support clinical and administrative operations around the clock.
Cooling at the Rack, Not the Room
Motivair by Schneider Electric’s ChilledDoor® is an active rear door heat exchanger that mounts to the back of an existing server rack and removes heat before it enters the room, up to 75 kW per rack depending on the model. Because it does not depend on raised flooring and can be applied to individual hot-spot racks, it suits rooms where a full cooling rebuild is not practical. For deployments expected to keep growing in density, a Motivair Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) separates the building’s chilled water from the IT cooling loop and manages temperature and flow to rear doors or direct-to-chip systems.
Designed With Water Near Critical Equipment in Mind
- ChilledDoor operation stays above the dew point, which eliminates condensation near critical electrical equipment
- Leak prevention and detection are standard on the ChilledDoor, and CDUs offer leak detection as standard or optional depending on the model
- Hot-swappable ChilledDoor fans with individual fan-fail sensing
- CDUs use redundant pumps and communicate over BACnet, Modbus, and SNMP
Efficiency Alongside Reliability
Health systems balance reliability requirements against energy and sustainability targets. Removing heat at the rack reduces the load on existing room cooling, and Motivair notes that fan power consumption and internal operating temperatures drop because the ChilledDoor works with the servers own fans. Both products require a chilled water source, so confirming availability near the affected space is the first step.
Not sure your IT spaces can support higher-density racks? Call 800-876-9373 to review the cooling in your clinical IT spaces and see whether rack-level cooling is a fit.