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June 23rd, 2015Success Stories Product Information

EIC Solutions Provides Electronics Cooling for 10,000 Member Church Server Room

Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia Utilizes EIC’s Protector™ Series IT Rack Enclosures to Cool Server Room

Market

IT Rack Air Conditioned Enclosure - Front View, Left Side
Protector Series IT Rack Air Conditioned Enclosure

Information Technology

Application

Server Room Cooling and Temperature Control

Q&A with Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia

Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia is a 10,000 member church as well as a fully functioning K-12 school, Calvary Christian Academy. When their building was originally constructed, the reliance on computers for every office and classroom operations was far less than today.

Now, with a large operation and with technology integrated into the everyday functions of the building, the church required more IT and network equipment but was limited to a small room that was designed to house servers. Emil Pilacik, the Acting CTO of Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, sat down with us to talk about how EIC Solutions provided the church with a way to resolve their IT challenges.

Q: Tell us about your server room cooling challenge.

A: Having a large church as well as a school requires a substantial amount of IT equipment. As we relied more and more on technology to complete our everyday tasks, more workstations and servers were added. The room that houses our servers was not originally designed for this purpose and keeping the space at the right temperature became a real issue.

Q: How had you been dealing with the issue?

A: We had a room air conditioner that was temperamental and very limited in its functionality. The door would regularly need to be left open to allow the external air in to cool the servers. This exposed the servers to dust and dirt as well as requiring constant supervision to be sure unauthorized people didn’t get too curious about the equipment.

Q: How did you hear about EIC?

A: EIC’s Senior Sales Engineer, Josh Liegel, attends the church and has several friends who work within the IT office and web development group. He heard about the problem we were having and thought EIC might be able to help. We visited EIC’s website and were impressed with their products and experience with custom solutions. At that point, we decided to have Josh come in to review our application.

Q: Tell us about working with EIC.

A: After contacting EIC Solutions and meeting with Josh, EIC’s sales and engineering team went to work carefully determining the best solution for the application. The goal was to configure a product that was large enough to handle the growing network but could also be installed in the preexisting room. Josh and the engineering team worked closely with us to assess all our needs and the possible variables of the project.

Q: Which product did you select for this application?

A: After reviewing the application, EIC recommended their Protector Series IT Rack with integrated dual 8,000 BTU cooling systems. The two 80” tall enclosures included front and rear rack rails, smoked polycarbonate windows, and cable entry panels on both the top and side.

Q: Are there any particular features in the product design that were critical in addressing your application?

A: The cabinet was designed specifically for the space. The two bays were shipped separately so they could be brought through the narrow door of the room and then assembled inside. The room was not deep enough for standard doors to be properly accessed on the rear of the enclosure so custom split doors that latched in the center were added to the design. The air conditioner waste heat is ducted out of the room to keep the environment around the racks from getting too warm.

Q: How is the solution performing?

A: The integral electronics cooling system is maintaining a stable temperature within the enclosure that keeps our system up and running. The cooling system monitors temperatures within the enclosure and emails alerts if there are any problems. We can even adjust the set point of the AC’s remotely. And enclosures and cooling system are sized to accommodate the future growth of our IT infrastructure.

Benefits/Results

The custom Protector Series IT Rack developed for Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia was the perfect solution for their application. Their servers are now in a secure, temperature controlled enclosure, eliminating server down time due to overheating and ensuring the security of the equipment. Not only was the enclosure and integrated cooling system sized for their current needs and space, but will allow for the addition of new IT equipment in future as their church and school continues to grow.

EIC Solutions provides a wide range of cooling solutions and enclosures designed to protect critical electronics in any environment.

Read other electronic cooling application stories today.

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