Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 4: Environmental control
ISO/IEC · ISO/IEC JTC 1
The counterpart of EN 50600-2-3, this standard addresses temperature, fluid movement, humidity, particulate and vibration control in data centres according to availability, security and energy-efficiency-enablement classes.
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Overview
ISO/IEC 22237-4 is the standard that defines environmental control in data centres and is the international counterpart of EN 50600-2-3. Its scope goes beyond temperature: it covers temperature control, fluid movement control and relative humidity control, as well as particulate control and vibration. This breadth indicates that cooling is not only a capacity calculation; the whole environment in which the equipment operates is a design subject.
The standard rests on the availability, security and energy-efficiency-enablement classification of ISO/IEC 22237-1. The requirements for environmental control systems therefore depend on the class chosen for the facility. The physical security of the environmental control systems is also within scope; unauthorised access to cooling infrastructure could disturb environmental conditions and threaten service continuity.
The document is Edition 1, published on 29 October 2021. It runs to 24 pages and replaces ISO/IEC TS 22237-4:2018. The record rests only on the IEC webstore abstract and product detail; because the full text is not openly available, class-specific numeric requirements are not given on this page.
The limit is that the public abstract can list the scope but does not reveal the detailed requirements. In design work the standard should be read together with the ASHRAE TC9.9 Thermal Guidelines and compared with EN 50600-2-3. Once the facility's target class is set, cooling plant and distribution redundancy should be verified against that class.
Key points
- Covers temperature control, fluid movement control and relative humidity control.
- Covers particulate control and vibration.
- Covers the physical security of environmental control systems.
- Based on the availability, security and energy-efficiency-enablement classification of ISO/IEC 22237-1.
- Edition 1 was published on 29 October 2021, runs to 24 pages and replaces ISO/IEC TS 22237-4:2018.
- It is the counterpart of EN 50600-2-3.
Using it in design
- In the cooling module, apply class-based redundancy rules (N, N+1, 2N) to cooling plant and distribution.
- Add humidity, filtration and vibration fields to the cooling-equipment catalogue so the design check covers the full environmental scope, not just temperature.
- Include the physical security of environmental control systems in the facility security design.
- Set the target facility class at project start and verify cooling redundancy against it.
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Who should read it
Engineers designing data centre cooling and environmental control, and consultants checking class-based compliance.
Related standards
- EN 50600-2-3
- ASHRAE TC9.9 Thermal Guidelines
- ISO/IEC 22237-1
Publication details
- Authors
- ISO/IEC JTC 1
- Publisher
- ISO/IEC
- Year
- 2021
- Document number
- ISO/IEC 22237-4:2021
- Document language
- English
- Source type
- Standard
- Access
- Citation only
- Licence
- Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document
Original licence note
Paid standard. Record built only from the publisher's public catalogue abstract and product metadata; full text not redistributed.
Citation
ISO/IEC JTC 1 (2021). Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 4: Environmental control. ISO/IEC. ISO/IEC 22237-4:2021. https://webstore.iec.ch/en/publication/71830
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Related sources
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Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences (Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences) 2026
CFD Analysis of Data Center Hall Cooling Performance under Normal and Failure Modes with Control Strategies and Airflow Leakages
Do thermal verification of failure mode (two ACUs offline) with realistic air leakage (cabinet gaps, HAC panel joints); a leak-free model can comply while the leaky model exceeds 32 °C.
- The grid study selected 7,288,454 cells with the standard k-epsilon model and wall functions.
Energies (MDPI AG) 2020
A Comparative CFD Study of Two Air Distribution Systems with Hot Aisle Containment in High-Density Data Centers
In high-density HAC halls, prefer a raised floor to hard-floor supply; on a hard floor high-velocity jets can starve the racks nearest the CRAHs and draw hot air back into them.
- On the hard floor, supply velocities of 10 m/s or more persisted to the eighth rack position, versus the fourth with a raised floor.
Energies (MDPI AG) 2019
Thermal Performance Evaluation of a Data Center Cooling System under Fault Conditions
Calculate the permissible time for a cooling outage with a pipe-volume energy balance and set the backup-cooling start time accordingly (here 300 s); high-temperature, contained designs give less time.
- From 18 °C chilled water and 25 °C supply air, coil capacity fell below the load and inlet temperatures rose rapidly.
Uptime Institute Journal 2014
Close Coupled Cooling and Reliability (Matt Mescall)
For in-row and RDHx designs, evaluate cooling redundancy per aisle or row, not per room, and check unit throw distance to the farthest rack under N-1.
- A planned electrical outage may take out no more than the redundant number of cooling units in any single aisle; 2N CCC with A/B split simplifies this.
Rittal 2013
White Paper - Data center climate control: An air-to-water exchange provides cooling efficiencies
Model cooler redundancy explicitly: 2N may come from two units or one unit with dual independent power and water feeds, so catalogue entries need an 'internal redundancy' field.
- Close-coupled units keep all 42U of a 2000 mm enclosure free for IT.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2011
Air Corrosivity in U.S. Outdoor-Air-Cooled Data Centers is Similar to That in Conventional Data Centers (LBNL-4951E)
When users select airside economization, show a contamination note and suggest coupon monitoring rather than ruling the option out.
- Report LBNL-4951E, 2011; freely readable.