Sustainable server cooling for the Ludwigsburg district office

ENGIE Refrigeration starts the new year with a green order: The cooling and heating specialist from Lindau on Lake Constance is now installing a thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump of the HHR 130 machine type with a heating output of 100 kilowatts in the Ludwigsburg district office. The model is particularly environmentally friendly because it uses the natural refrigerant CO₂ on the one hand and simultaneously provides cold and heat on the other. ENGIE Refrigeration has also conceptually revised the thermeco₂: For example, the heat pump now has a filter dryer and more control options.

The administrative campus of the Ludwigsburg district council office hosts almost all important departments of the Swabian county. Every day, digital tools are used to provide various services for the citizens of Ludwigsburg. This requires a powerful IT infrastructure, which is why the district office maintains an in-house data center. For reliable operation, the ambient temperature plays a central role: Since the server racks generate a large amount of heat, the cooling supply must function smoothly around the clock. The need for action was already apparent in summer 2019: "The existing R22 refrigeration system had come of age and should therefore be completely modernized. As the Ludwigsburg district office attaches great importance to a sustainable cooling solution, it opted for the thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump from ENGIE Refrigeration," said Key Account Manager Heating Applications Frank Glaser, who heads the project at ENGIE Refrigeration and works closely with the planning office Eser, Dittmann, Nehring &Partner. The Ludwigsburg district office wants to be climate neutral from 2025. For this purpose, the authority would like to produce and consume its own electricity in the future with the aid of a photovoltaic system and a combined heat and power plant.

Environmentally friendly cooling and heat supply from ENGIE

ENGIE Refrigeration accompanies the district council office with a sustainable server cooling on its path to climate neutrality. "The Ludwigsburg district office requires extraction of heating energy in a challenging temperature spectrum: at a high outlet temperature of up to 90 degrees Celsius and a low inlet temperature of 38 degrees Celsius. Under these conditions, our thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump unfolds its full potential, while alternative solutions could only achieve this with high technical and high primary energy expenditure," explains Frank Glaser.

In March 2021, the thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump will be installed in the Ludwigsburg district office and will henceforth provide the base load cooling for the year-round server cooling. In addition, the heat pump will in future cool the office building in the winter months and, thanks to the heat recovery function, will simultaneously provide the heat output for building heating, DHW heating and air recirculation in the server rooms. This makes this cooling solution particularly sustainable and is therefore subsidized by the state. Additional refrigeration machines and boilers are available for peak heat and cold loads.

On site, the thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump easily adapts to the conditions with its machine design. A further advantage comes into play here: The thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump uses the natural refrigerant CO₂ as the refrigerant. This is very safe (safety class A1) and therefore only places low safety requirements on the installation room. In addition, CO₂ is non-flammable, non-toxic and does not contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer or the greenhouse effect. Overall, the thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump saves 38.4 tons of CO₂ per year compared to the previous refrigeration system – in line with the sustainability strategy of the Ludwigsburg district office.

thermeco₂ scores with new properties

In addition, ENGIE Refrigeration has carried out fundamental further developments on the thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump, which are now being used for the first time by the machine for the district office. "Starting immediately, we are also relying on the use of our proven QUANTUM electrical components for thermeco₂. In addition, the filter dryer becomes the standard: It keeps the refrigerant circuit clean and dry and thus counteracts the decomposition of the refrigerator oil, corrosion and further contamination. This is how we keep the system's performance constantly high," explains Frank Glaser. In addition, the thermeco₂ high-temperature heat pump saves around ten percent of its weight compared to the previous model thanks to its optimized design, smaller enclosure and solder instead of flanged connections. Last but not least, the entire series will offer an even greater choice of control options in the future: For example, the flow monitor for cold and hot water is designed analogously to the QUANTUM refrigerator and "Cool Care 3.0 DSL Gateway" is used as a remote maintenance tool. This enables ENGIE specialists to access the heat pump touch panel via remote control. This simplifies commissioning, troubleshooting faults and the application of software updates – a real advantage for the rLudwigsburg district office and all other ENGIE Refrigeration customers.