Nortek DCC Advocates Adaptable Cooling Designs for Rising AI Rack Densities

Nortek Data Center Cooling has set out a cooling strategy centred on adaptability as AI workloads raise rack thermal densities beyond the assumptions of conventional air-cooled designs.

The supplier argues that rigid, standardised cooling projects can become obsolete quickly as density requirements change. Its C-Force™ framework is intended to involve Nortek DCC engineers alongside the customer through design, implementation and operation, with systems configured for later adaptation and expansion.

In the interview, Steen pointed to a sharp change in rack-density expectations. Racks rarely exceeded 120 kW three years ago, according to the figures cited in the article, while they now routinely exceed 300 kW of IT load. One-megawatt racks were described as a future prospect rather than an operating deployment.

For legacy facilities, Nortek DCC identified hybrid cooling approaches, including rear-door heat exchangers, as a practical bridge between conventional air cooling and more extensive liquid-cooling infrastructure. Such approaches could allow operators to address higher-density deployments without immediately replacing all existing cooling infrastructure.

The discussion also links cooling design to resource use. The source cites large air-cooled data centers as consuming up to 5 million gallons of water per day and refers to a projected 56% gap in global freshwater supply by 2030. However, the available material does not provide the methodology, geography or underlying sample for either estimate.

The interview does not announce a data-center project, customer contract, deployment timetable or supply volume. Its significance is instead as an indication of technology demand: cooling suppliers may face increasing demand for modular systems that enable phased migration from air cooling to liquid cooling, particularly in operating facilities where a full infrastructure replacement is difficult.