Data centre noise control

Noise control for cooling plant, standby generators and plant rooms, so a site meets its boundary noise limits without giving up the airflow the cooling design depends on.

• Data centre noise comes from five places: standby generator plant rooms, rooftop air handling equipment, external plant compounds, the site perimeter, and the data halls themselves. Each one is solved differently.
• A generator plant room has to balance airflow against attenuation, and the space for intake and discharge silencers has to be found before the structure goes up. Found afterwards, it becomes larger openings or bolt-on external silencers.
• The design case is the quietest ambient period at the nearest receptor, which is normally night, not a daily average.
• Rooftop chillers and air handling plant are usually screened with acoustic louvres because the airflow has to be preserved. Where airflow is less constrained, barriers and fan-mounted silencers do more for the money.
• Doors and windows are the weak point of any plant room. The rating of the openings has to be designed alongside the wall, not after it.
• Assess levels at the boundary receptors first, and place external compounds as far from the sensitive ones as the site plan allows. Position is cheaper than attenuation.

Where this is specified

• Hyperscale and colocation data centres
• Standby generator plant rooms and fuel compounds
• Chiller yards and cooling tower compounds
• Rooftop mechanical plant on offices and high-rise buildings
• Site perimeters adjoining residential areas

Product lines in this family

• Silencers for cooling plant and air intakes
• Intake and discharge silencers for generator plant rooms
• Acoustic enclosures for standby generators and chillers
• Acoustic louvres for ventilation openings and facades
• Acoustic barriers around plant compounds and site boundaries
• Absorptive wall and ceiling panels for plant rooms
• Acoustic doors and windows for plant rooms and data halls
• Exhaust silencers for standby diesel engines