Data centre cooling hire Perth becomes critical the moment a system fails — and that’s exactly what happened here. The facility supplied internet connectivity across the entire Western Australian coast, and servers were hours away from overheating past the point of no return. Aircon Rentals got the call in the middle of the night.
2 units * 4.5kW spot coolers deployed. Server temps kept below failure threshold < 45°C. 0 Servers lost or damaged.
The situation
A phone call at 2am over the Christmas break is nobody’s idea of a good time. That’s exactly what this job was. The data centre’s primary air conditioning had failed without warning, and this wasn’t a standard server room. It was the internet backbone for the Western Australian coast. A prolonged outage meant connectivity problems for an entire region, not just one facility.
Servers run hot. An enclosed space with no active cooling can hit dangerous temperatures within a few hours. Once internal temps break 45°C, hardware starts failing, and most units will shut themselves down to protect the hard drives. Hold that heat long enough and overheated components become a fire risk. There was no time to wait for business hours.
The problem: an underground room with nowhere to send the heat
Before the technician had even arrived on-site, the venue manager flagged something that made the job harder. The data centre was completely underground. No opening windows. No removable ceiling panels. No obvious way to vent hot exhaust air out of the space.
For a permanent facility, that design makes sense. A sealed underground environment is harder to access and easier to secure. For emergency cooling hire, it’s a real problem.
The technician assessed the space on arrival and went with the most practical option available: vent the hot exhaust air through the room’s doorway. Not elegant. In an emergency, though, it got the job done.
The solution
Two 4.5kW mobile spot coolers went into the data centre. They brought temperatures down fast and held them in a safe operating range, giving the servers the relief they needed before anything failed.
Water was the other concern. Portable air conditioners pull moisture out of the air as they cool, and in a room packed with high-value electronics, any water on the floor near live equipment is a problem. The technicians fitted condensate pumps and collection bins to each unit, keeping water clear of the equipment entirely.
The setup also had to work unsupervised. With the Christmas break still running, staff weren’t going to return to site daily to empty water trays. With the pumps and bins in place, the units could run for several days without anyone needing to attend.
“The venue manager was concerned about access and water management — two very real challenges in an underground data centre. Our technician resolved both on the spot, and the client had working cooling within hours of the initial callout.”
— Aircon Rentals Operations Team
The outcome
Cooling was restored before any servers failed. The data centre ran through the entire Christmas period without interruption, connectivity across the Western Australian coast held up, and no water damage occurred. The condensate management system had enough capacity that staff didn’t need to return to site for days after the initial installation.
What data centre managers can take from this
- Have a contingency cooling plan documented before anything goes wrong. Knowing who to call at 2am matters more than you think until the moment you actually need it.
- Server hardware typically starts to fail above 45°C. Most units shut down automatically before that point, but sustained high heat creates fire risk that automatic shutdowns don’t prevent.
- Condensate management cannot be an afterthought when deploying temporary cooling near electronics. Plan for water collection from the start.
- Unusual building configurations — underground, sealed, or with no external venting — need a technician who can read the space and adapt on the day. See how we approach design and engineering solutions for non-standard environments.
- Christmas and public holidays are high-risk periods for any facilities team. Reduced staffing means faults go unnoticed longer. Our 24/7 emergency response exists for exactly this reason.
For more on how we work with data centre operators across Australia, see our data centres industry page or browse our full range of aircon hire options in Perth.
Need emergency cooling for your data centre? Aircon Rentals operates 24/7 across Perth and all of Australia. Call 1800 626 996 or enquire online.