RTKL GRANTED PATENT RIGHTS FOR "TOWER OF COOL"

RTKL has been granted broad patent protection rights by the US Patent and Trademark Office for the "Tower of Cool," a revolutionary method designed to cool data centers. The Tower of Cool is a cabinet designed to cool the computer equipment, not the room, which to date has been the typical method to cool data center facilities. The new concept increases reliability, while significantly lowering both first cost and operating costs.

This will revolutionize the data center as we know it," states Steve Spinazzola, co-inventor of The Tower of Cool, and vice president at RTKL, a worldwide architectural and engineering firm. "The old approach, which typically cools the entire room, is no longer effective at cooling today's computer equipment. In an increasingly wired world, data centers are critical to the functioning of everyday business. Unfortunately, power hungry data center facilities generate heat, and in an age of energy conservation and lower costs, our future depends on keeping our computing equipment cool."

RTKL and its business partner APW-Wright Line, a global leader in the manufacture of technical furniture and enclosures, initially launched the product in April 2002. To date, it has already been installed in five facilities.

"This patent further strengthens our position as the leader for providing cutting edge solutions for cooling today's mission critical equipment," said Todd Schneider, director of marketing for APW-Wright Line, the exclusive manufacturer and distribution channel for The Tower of Cool.

When RTKL began designing data centers, the raised floor, through which air was pumped to cool the energy-intensive server rooms, was considered cutting edge. Today, nearly thirty-five years later, this brute force cooling method is still the only means by which server rooms are kept from overheating.

"The traditional methods of cooling a data center are no longer adequate to keep pace with the increasing power and heat load densities we're seeing today," says Spinazzola, who along with co-inventor Dennis Peltz, PE, another vice president at RTKL, invented the system based on the hypothesis that it would be more energy efficient - and therefore cost-effective -- to cool the rack-mounted computer equipment in the server cabinets themselves, rather than the air that surrounds them.

Today, using the standard method, fans in the air-conditioning units on the data center floor accounts for 28% of the cooling energy consumed by a standard data facility. The Tower of Cool pumps cool air with fans at the base of the cabinet from the raised floor, and up through a specially built or retrofitted cabinet, cooling the equipment itself before being recycled back through the fan. This enables a 14% reduction in the cost to cool the facility, and a 6 – 10% reduction in demand on the electrical grid. In addition, because this method uses half the airflow, there is a 50% reduction is the air conditioning units that are required.

"These densities have driven the average power consumption from below 3kW to potentially over 6kW per cabinet," emphasized Spinazzola. "This is the clear solution to the power consumption and cooling issues associated with today's data center, by providing the perfect balance of consistent airflow and power distribution at the cabinet level. Until now, components of the building operated independently to house and cool the computer equipment," he said. "This total system approach incorporates the air conditioning system, the building and the computer cabinets into one complete cooling system."

An international architectural and engineering firm, RTKL is a recognized leader in the design of mission critical, high-density data centers. Headquartered in Baltimore, the firm has more than two decades of experience in designing highly critical facilities and is one of the few companies with the capabilities to bundle the architectural, engineering and consulting specialties into a tightly integrated package. For more information visit www.RTKL.com.

APW-Wright Line is a global leader in the design and manufacture of technical furniture and enclosure systems; serving the information technology, engineering and high-tech manufacturing environments for nearly 70 years. Their innovative designs are manufactured to the highest quality and safety standards. APW-Wright Line is a business unit of APW Ltd., which services the electronics industry with a wide array of products and services including design, supply chain management, assembly, testing and drop shipping. For more information visit www.wrightline.com.

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contact:
Leeza Hoyt
LLHOYT@HOYTORG.COM or call 310-373-0103.





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