Air conditioning units are typically employed to cool spaces in multiple types of structures, such as, buildings, data centers, electronics racks, and servers. Oftentimes, the air conditioning units supply cooling airflow to the interiors of the structures through a plenum and ventilation tiles. In addition, some structures include controllers configured to provision cooling resources supplied from the air conditioning units and through the ventilation tiles.
Networks of sensors have also been deployed in various locations within the structures to thus collect data relevant to the various locations. The controllers often interface with and receive data from the sensors in the sensor networks. In addition, the controllers have been known to use the data received from the sensors in controlling either or both of the air conditioning units and the ventilation tiles to substantially maintain the temperatures at the sensors at or below desired temperatures. The sensors are typically set to a common reference temperature setpoint, regardless of their placements in the structures.
It is, however, often less than optimal to set the temperature setpoints to a common reference temperature because of non-uniformity of the airflow in the structures, the arrangement of the equipment deployed in the structures, and the varying levels of heat loads generated by the heat generating components in the structures.
It would therefore be beneficial to be able to identify temperature setpoints for the sensors that enables substantially optimal cooling provisioning to be provided in the structures.