Free Cooling for Data Centers

Energy-Efficient Cooling Using Ambient Conditions

As data centers face rapidly increasing cooling demands and rising energy costs, free cooling has become a key strategy to reduce PUE and improve sustainability. By utilizing naturally cold outdoor air or water sources, free cooling reduces mechanical chiller load and enhances system efficiency.
HFM provides engineered heat-exchange solutions that integrate seamlessly into water-side and air-side free cooling architectures for modern data centers.

What Is Free Cooling?

Lower Energy Consumption, Higher Operational Efficiency

Free cooling leverages naturally low ambient temperatures to remove heat from data center cooling loops. It reduces or eliminates the need for compressor-based chillers, supporting greener and more cost-effective operations.

Free cooling typically operates in:

• Economizer mode (partial free cooling)

• Full free cooling mode (no mechanical refrigeration)

Free Cooling for Water Systems（Water-Side Free Cooling）

Using Low-Temperature Water Sources for Efficient Heat Rejection

Water-side free cooling uses cold outdoor water sources to cool the data center’s secondary loop through a plate heat exchanger. This method is widely used in climates with long low-temperature seasons.

Free Cooling for Air Systems（Air-Side Free Cooling）

Using Cold Ambient Air to Remove Data Center Heat

Air-side free cooling utilizes cool outside air directly or indirectly to cool the facility.

Why HFM Free Cooling Solutions

Designed for Reliability, Efficiency, and Low PUE

HFM plate heat exchangers are engineered specifically to handle free cooling system challenges:

• High efficiency under low temperature differences

• Stable performance across seasonal ambient variations

• Materials optimized for outdoor water and glycol mixtures

• Compact footprint for cooling tower and dry-cooler integrations

• Scalable configurations for hyperscale and colocation data centers

• Engineering support for system design, process flow, and optimization

We help data centers reduce energy consumption and transition to sustainable cooling architectures.

Applications in Data Centers

HFM free cooling supports efficient operation in:

• Hyperscale campuses in cold-climate regions

• Modular data centers

• Colocation facilities

• Edge sites

• High energy–intensity data halls

• AI training clusters with hybrid cooling needs

Related Data Center Solutions

• Liquid Cooling

• CDU Systems

• Data Center Cooling Architecture

• Plate Heat Exchangers for Facility Loops