Patent ID: 7990709

Claim:
An apparatus for facilitating cooling of an electronics rack residing within a data center, the apparatus comprising: a heat exchange assembly configured to mount external to the electronics rack, wherein the electronics rack comprising an air inlet side and an air outlet side and external air outside the electronics rack moves through the electronics rack by entering an air inlet at the air inlet side and exiting an air outlet at the air outlet side, and wherein the heat exchange assembly is configured to mount above the electronics rack in an operative position, and to cool recirculating hot air, the recirculating hot air comprising hot air rejected from the air outlet side of the electronics rack to the external air, and recirculating above the electronics rack from the air outlet side to the air inlet side, the heat exchange assembly being mounted and sized to facilitate passing the recirculating hot air through the heat exchange assembly, and wherein the heat exchange assembly comprises: a support structure to support hinged mounting of the heat exchange assembly directly above and external to the electronics rack; and an air-to-liquid heat exchanger coupled to the support structure, at least one hinge coupled to the support structure to hingedly attach the air-to-liquid heat exchanger to at least one of an upper portion of the electronics rack or an overhead support structure of the data center in a position aligned over the electronics rack, the air-to-liquid heat exchanger having an inlet plenum and an outlet plenum in fluid communication with respective connect couplings of the heat exchange assembly, the respective connect couplings facilitating connection of the inlet and outlet plenums to a coolant supply line and a coolant return line, respectively, and wherein the air-to-liquid heat exchanger further comprises at least one heat exchange tube section, each heat exchange tube section comprising a coolant channel having a coolant channel inlet and a coolant channel outlet, each coolant channel inlet being coupled to the inlet plenum and each coolant channel outlet being coupled to the outlet plenum.