Cool solution for trading desks

Ability Projects has partnered trading desk designer and supplier DAS Business Furniture to supply desks with integral cooling capability to a number of trading floors around the world.Peter Lowther of Ability Projects details its role at One Angel Lane, London, for Nomura

When the Nomura enquiry was first raised DAS already had a cooling system supplier but as enquiries increased and the financial stakes grew ever higher, it realised it needed a partner rather than simply a supplier. This is where Ability entered the equation. The brief at that time was fairly basic and so while the final product clearly would not be, there was a fair degree of scope to tackle design issues in which ever way looked best for the partnership.

Ability's background is in fan coils, so the cooling solution was always going to be a variation upon a fan coil theme. However, Ability was instrumental in the introduction of EC fan technology to fan coils as well as the first variable fan speed strategies and the integration of BACnet control devices into fan coils, so it was clear that there was scope to design these elements into the solution.

The problem with cooling a trading desk is the lack of space. Every trader needed to have one to four computer units beneath the desk, plus power and communications wiring and a bank of up to eight flat screens per trader. The final design incorporated a special EC fan, coil, new BACnet controller and new control strategy A trading desk with a cooling module needs to be sold on different levels - its look, its practicality, ergonomics and the technical capability of the cooling module it incorporates.While Ability refined the fan coil, DAS was involved in selling the features of its desk to the bank. Having made it to a shortlist of two, the next step was to test the trading desks with their respective cooling modules for performance and air distribution and to see how each would interact with the chosen environmental air conditioning system. A test facility in Germany carried out two days of intensive product evaluation. By the end of day one, it was apparent that the DAS desk and Ability cooling solution met all primary requirements of the design brief.

Ability was pleased to have confirmation that some of the additional performance subtleties it had designed for were evident in the noise and air distribution test data.

The Ability solution uses a variable speed strategy driven by cooling demand; when the trader or traders are away from their desks and computer heat output is low, the fans automatically adopt a set-back fan speed condition, saving energy and reducing noise.

Conversely, when the trader returns, the fans speed up to deal with the higher level of demand. Over and above this, as the air velocity also picks up, the cooled air stream being driven up between the opposing banks of trading screens induces air away from the trader's face, picking up heat as it passes over the screens and delivering it unobtrusively into the ambient space.

Some dealer CPU cooling solutions are 'sealed' in that they enclose the CPU area and deal with the heat from the CPUs alone while being isolated from the general space.

Ability bucked this style trend for reasons which the tests confirmed to be correct.

An 'open' cooling solution is able to work alongside the installed conventional air conditioning. In the event that a single 'closed solution' trading desk cooling unit failed, the CPUs inside the desk would be isolated from any form of support and so the temperature will rise rapidly. Conversely, if an 'open' solution desk is struggling, fan coils in the adjacent desks plus the normal air conditioning will help out so that the impact on the affected CPUs is barely noticeable.

The DAS / Ability desk and cooling module combination have a BACnet terminal controller as standard, enabling all trading floor cooling modules to be networked and potentially integrated into a conventional BMS. It was only as discussions and meetings progressed that it was realised how important the uninterrupted running of any trading floor is. This is why the ability to remotely monitor and adjust each desk through the BACnet network is so useful. This is also why the 'open' design, which avoids downtime during trading hours is key and why the capability to 'hot swap' a cooling module out of a run of desks in minutes is so important.

Ability desks are provided with a flexible hose connection kit with quick release pipe fittings. Should the need arise, this allows the cooling module to be quickly disconnected from the adjoining desks, removed and replaced. The brief called for this procedure to be carried out in less than 30min during trading hours but as the 'open' nature of the Ability module has the built in margin of safety afforded by the support of its neighbours, any servicing or replacement of an Ability product can in practice wait until the trading day is over.

Following the success of the One Angel Lane project, DAS and Ability are supplying and installing many cooled trading desk solutions throughout the world. In addition, several hundred conventional Ability fan coils were supplied to both the base-build contract and fit-out at One Angel Lane to air condition the remainder of the building.