Data Center Ultra- Sonic Humidification Retrofit

[yinthenovice]

I'm involved in a project to expand the humidification in a data center , currently using low pressure steam from a pair of 102hp gas boilers.

I was thinking of recommending Ultrasonic humidifiers for the new ones and even replacing the whole thing with just ultrasonic , because the existing humidifiers are pieces of you know what .

Right now , my payback is borderline ,
My question is this :
has anyone had experience with these in data centers ?

Is the cooling load really reduced by 1000BTU/lb of water ? (this will give me the payback for sure)
What about retrofitting them into the existing Liebert units to replace the infra-red lamps ?

Is maintenance a headache ?

Thanks Guys and gals

Yin the Novice

 

[KiwiMace]

Explain:

Is your LPS on your OA or other separate ducted system? or a fan dispersion unit... how is this moisture being introduced to the space?

Are you talking about retrofitting the steam dispersion tubes with the ultrasonic?

Why are you currently not using the IR units in the Lieberts?

As for Ultrasound - use 10% of the power of evaporation types, require RO or DI water to prevent scaling up and dying, reportedly very quickly. Will act as a direct evaporative cooler on the airstream, heat saved will depend on variable level of humidification.

Read this:

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/FTA_UltraHumid.pdf

 

[yinthenovice]

KiWiMAce

The LPS is in air handler plenum , introducing steam into the supply air duct . Just thinking of taking the whole system out and replacing it.

Oh , the Lieberts are not in the same space as the LPS , I kinda forgot about that , they are in their own room .

Good link by the way.

 

[KiwiMace]

Here is another link then - more tractable, but saying the same thing (pg 9):

http://www.ptsdcs.com/whitepapers/47.pdf

 

[ChasBean1]

Your payback is nonexistent (reverse direction even) if it’s a performance upgrade vs. an energy upgrade… Humidifier should only be sized for makeup air volume. If you have 200 cfm exchange in this room and are expanding the room with the same 200 cfm of makeup air, humidifier output shouldn’t change. With low air exchange, odds are you can do this on a single Liebert with an IR lamp or some type of stand-alone unit.