Legacy Hall Retrofit
Start with an old open room, then improve airflow, add containment, introduce a hybrid liquid zone and test real path dependencies.
This interactive educational scenario starts with a 420 kW legacy room using an open layout, incomplete blanking, a single modeled power path and a single row-level network fabric. It is a bounded comparison tool, not measured site data, a construction design, a code-compliance review or a vendor selection. All results remain visible by system; the experience deliberately avoids a hidden composite score.
Learning objectives
- Separate low-cost airflow corrections from major infrastructure changes
- Keep residual air, power and network dependencies visible during a high-density retrofit
- Save a versioned design assumption set and defend the remaining risks
Five retrofit phases
Old room preserves the starting condition. Airflow hygiene introduces hot and cold aisle organization and stronger blanking discipline. Containment adds physical air separation and changes the assumed residual-air cooling efficiency. Hybrid zone routes part of the IT heat through an illustrative liquid loop while keeping residual air load explicit. Path integrity adds independent modeled power paths and dual network fabrics so maintenance and failure states can be explored.
Each phase is only a starting preset. Sliders and selectors remain editable so a learner can inspect how IT load, rack count, inlet target, blanking coverage, liquid heat capture, electrical loss, auxiliary support load and topology assumptions change the displayed consequences.
What the model exposes
The before-and-after register shows PUE, annual facility energy, maximum modeled inlet temperature and total cooling-path power. A connected graph keeps electricity, air heat, liquid heat and packet paths distinct. A constraint register states whether the selected thermal target, protected power path, external packet path and average rack-density check are clear, need attention or are active limitations.
Maintenance and failures are inputs, not decoration. The power view can remove path A, combine path A maintenance with a path B failure, or expose a shared upstream dependency. The network view can remove either fabric or the shared external boundary. The graph and constraint text update from the same pure evaluator used by the automated regression tests.
Assumptions and omissions
The thermal calculation is directional and intentionally compact. It does not model CFD, pipe sizing, water quality, control sequences, part-load equipment curves, utility tariffs, embodied carbon, fire strategy, structural loading, acoustic limits, commissioning tolerances or jurisdiction-specific requirements. Annual energy is a transparent arithmetic estimate based on the entered IT, cooling, electrical-loss and support loads.
Use the result to understand dependencies and form better engineering questions. A real retrofit still requires verified as-built information, current standards, authority review, manufacturer data, site engineering and commissioning.
Versioned Design Pro workspace
You can name and save an assumption set in browser-local storage. Every snapshot records the scenario schema version, model version, timestamp, note and normalized inputs. Reopening a snapshot returns to this scenario with those assumptions; it does not certify or approve them. Open the Design Pro workspace or review the underlying solution patterns.