Patent ID: 7963119

Claim:
An apparatus facilitating cooling of at least one electronics rack of a data center, the apparatus comprising: a hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit disposed separate from the at least one electronics rack, the hybrid and liquid coolant conditioning unit comprising: a first heat exchange assembly comprising a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger, a system coolant pipe loop and a facility coolant pipe loop, wherein the facility coolant pipe loop is connected to and receives chilled facility coolant from a data center source external to the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit and the at least one electronics rack, and is connected to the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger and passes at least a portion thereof through the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger, and the system coolant pipe loop is connected in fluid communication with the at least one electronics rack disposed separate from the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit, and providing cooled system coolant to the at least one electronics rack, and expelling heat via the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger from the at least one electronics rack to the chilled facility coolant in the facility coolant pipe loop; a second heat exchange assembly, the second heat exchange assembly comprising an air-to-liquid heat exchanger, an air-moving device, and the facility coolant pipe loop, the air-moving device moving air across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, wherein the facility coolant pipe loop is connected to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and passing at least a portion of the chilled facility coolant through the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, the air-to-liquid heat exchanger extracting heat from air of the data center moving across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and expelling the heat to the chilled facility coolant in the facility coolant pipe loop, thereby facilitating air cooling of the at least one electronics rack disposed separate from the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit, wherein the facility coolant pipe loop is connected to and provides chilled facility coolant in parallel to the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger of the first heat exchange assembly and to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger of the second heat exchange assembly; and at least one control valve disposed within the facility coolant pipe loop, wherein the facility coolant pipe loop feeds facility coolant in parallel to a first facility coolant supply inlet line coupled to the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger and a second facility coolant supply inlet line coupled to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, and wherein the at least one control valve is coupled to at least one of the first facility coolant supply inlet line or the second facility coolant supply inlet line and separately controlling facility coolant flow through at least one of the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger or the air-to-liquid heat exchanger.