Patent ID: 8689861

Claim:
A method of cooling multiple electronics racks of a data center, the method comprising: obtaining a hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit, the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit including a first heat exchange assembly and a second heat exchange assembly, the first heat exchange assembly comprising a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger, a system coolant loop to facilitate feeding system coolant cooled by the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit to multiple electronics racks for cooling thereof, and a first portion of a facility coolant loop through which chilled facility coolant is to flow, the second heat exchange assembly comprising an air-to-liquid heat exchanger, an air-moving device, and a second portion of the facility coolant loop; disposing the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit in operative position within a data center comprising the multiple electronics racks; operating the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit to cool the the multiple electronics racks of the data center, the operating including: employing the facility coolant loop to pass at least a portion of the chilled facility coolant from a source through the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger of the first heat exchange assembly, and controlling the portion passed through the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger employing at least one control valve of the hybrid air and liquid coolant conditioning unit to control cooling of the system coolant in the system coolant loop; providing the system coolant to the multiple electronics racks from the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger of the first heat exchange assembly after cooling thereof within the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger, and expelling heat via the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger from the multiple electronics racks to the chilled facility coolant in the facility coolant loop, wherein the at least one control valve allows adjustment of facility coolant flow through the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger, thereby allowing control of temperature of system coolant in the system coolant loop for facilitating cooling of the multiple electronics racks; operating the air-moving device to move air across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger while passing the second portion of chilled facility coolant from the facility coolant loop through the air-to-liquid heat exchanger of the second heat exchange assembly to cool data center air, wherein the air-to-liquid heat exchanger extracts heat from the data center air moving across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and expels the heat to the chilled facility coolant in the facility coolant loop, thereby further cooling the multiple electronics racks of the data center, wherein the facility coolant loop provides the 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.