Patent ID: 8553416

Claim:
A system for providing cooled air to electronic equipment in a data center, comprising: a cooling tower operable to receive heated water and output cooled water; a water storage tank fluidly coupled to the cooling tower and storing the cooled water received from the cooling tower; an air-to-water heat exchanger positioned to receive heated air from a group of electronic devices; and a controller that monitors a current temperature of the water in the water storage tank, wherein when detecting that the current temperature of the water in the water storage tank is below a pre-determined threshold value, the controller routes the heated water received from the air-to-water heat exchanger to the water storage tank bypassing the cooling tower, while routing a mixture of the cooled water in the water storage tank and the heated water received from the air-to-water exchanger back to the air-to-water exchanger, and based on detecting that the current temperature of the water in the water storage tank is above the pre-determined threshold value and a volume of water in another water storage tank is above a threshold volume associated with a power usage of the data center, the controller routes water from the water storage tank and water from the other water storage tank to the air-to-water heat exchanger, and based on detecting that the current temperature of the water in the water storage tank is above the pre-determined threshold value and the volume of water in the another water storage tank is below the threshold volume associated with the power usage of the data center, the controller routes a mixture of chilled water circulated from a chiller with the cooled water from the water storage tank to the air-to-water heat exchanger.