Nortek Data Center Cooling CTO Thomas Steen Details AI Liquid Cooling and C-Force
Nortek data center cooling solutions are stepping into the spotlight as data center operators face mounting industry pressure to radically rethink how they handle exponential heat loads driven by modern artificial intelligence hardware. In an exclusive industry interview with Data Centre Magazine, Nortek Data Center Cooling CTO Thomas Steen unpacked the critical shift toward advanced liquid cooling architectures, customizable engineering models, and the proprietary C-Force framework.
Data centre operators are confronting an unprecedented thermal power surge that threatens to overwhelm legacy infrastructure. According to the company’s comprehensive liquid cooling playbook, individual rack power densities have skyrocketed over the past three years from a standard 120kW up to routinely exceeding 300 kW, with massive 1 MW racks looming on the immediate industry horizon. Rigid, one-size-fits-all cooling systems built on predictive guesses are no longer viable because hardware density requirements evolve at breakneck speed. Consequently, customisable engineering and collaborative frameworks have become paramount for modern digital infrastructure operators navigating intense compute demands.
Why Nortek Data Center Cooling Hybrid Systems Bridge the Gap for Legacy Facilities
While building brand-new liquid cooling infrastructure from scratch offers ultimate long-term flexibility, existing legacy facilities represent massive multi-million-dollar capital investments that cannot simply be demolished overnight. To help operators evolve without undertaking disruptive, facility-wide overhauls, Nortek data center cooling champions hybrid approaches like rear-door heat exchangers (RDHX) as a practical bridge.
Hybrid cooling lets operators extend the lifecycle of legacy infrastructure by integrating liquid adoption incrementally across their server halls. By adding RDHX units directly to existing server racks, operators can capture and remove intense heat right at the source, successfully supporting higher-density AI workloads while leaving the facility’s broader air-cooling systems intact. This dual approach allows engineering teams to target the most thermally urgent racks first, establishing a practical, deployable pathway toward full liquid adoption over time without risking catastrophic downtime or operational bottlenecks.
The Sustainability Imperative and Total Cost of Ownership in Modern Facilities
The environmental footprint of modern computing represents another massive hurdle for the industry, especially as large air-cooled facilities consume millions of gallons of water daily amid a projected global freshwater supply gap. A data centre operates as an interconnected ecosystem, meaning overall resource consumption depends heavily on how a facility handles thermal heat rejection. Modern closed-loop liquid systems such as direct-to-chip cold plates and coolant distribution units (CDUs) operate entirely as closed loops, while heat rejection systems can optimize water usage by combining dry cooling for most of the year with water-assisted cooling only during peak thermal periods.
Financially, operators often hesitate to upgrade due to perceived upfront capital expenditures. However, Nortek data center cooling experts emphasize that focusing solely on initial hardware costs ignores the bigger picture of lifecycle economics. While liquid cooling requires a larger initial investment, its remarkably lower energy requirements cutting cooling energy spent by up to 90% yield a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) up to 20% lower than traditional air cooling after four years. Forcing traditional air systems to support extreme high-density deployments introduces costly infrastructure creep, making liquid architectures far more cost-effective over the long run.
Accelerating Deployment Through the C-Force Solutions Framework
To manage volatile design constraints across diverse facilities, the Nortek data center cooling division utilizes the C-Force end-to-end solutions model to streamline operations. By embedding specialized engineers directly into a customer’s workflow from initial design sprints and rapid prototyping to joint manufacturing and final operation, the company eliminates costly redesigns before they happen. Close collaboration enables high customisation without sacrificing deployment speed, ensuring that thermal management strategies evolve seamlessly alongside the relentless growth of next-generation AI infrastructure.