I received comments back from a reviewer that data center/server rooms should be classified as "active storage" with 0.8 W/sf allowance. We had classified this space as electrical/mechanical with 1.5 W/sf allowance, as there are fine and detailed visual tasks required in these rooms to make fiber optic and CAT 6 connections, perform maintenance, etc. and the lighting needs are certainly higher than that of a storage room. Has anyone dealt with this issue on previous projects and been allowed a higher LPD for these space types?
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Dane Sanders
PrincipalClanton Associates
68 thumbs up
November 4, 2013 - 6:15 pm
Apologies for the very late response. I hope that this late response may still be useful for you. You could certainly try to make the argument for the Electrical/Mechanical space type to increase your allowable LPD, but I cannot guarantee your LEED reviewer will accept it after making this comment. You could also add to your case that the height of server racks requires more lighting equipment to avoid shadowing and provide the recommended light levels. This shadowing affect from tall shelves is also experienced in Library Stacks, which is allowed 1.71 W/SF by ASHRAE.
In some data centers we have designed lighting for, we resolved the shadowing from the server racks by using linear luminaires oriented 45-degrees from the server rack rows. The worst case shadowing occurs with lights oriented parallel to the server rows. Lighting parallel to the rows requires more coordination to center each row of lights in the center of each aisle. Lighting oriented perpendicular to the rows eliminates shadowing, and may allow wider spacing of lights to achieve the same light levels. In our 45-degree design, our client had not yet done the layout of the server rows and did not want to be committed to one orientation of rows. The 45-degree angle ensured flexibility of server row orientation, and also out-performed the perpendicular layout with wider spacing and lower LPD while also providing the same light levels.