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These "before - during - after" photos show our effort last weekend to remove equipment from 3 floors in a downtown Shreveport office building. The principal switch/data center installation was on the 4th floor, with a battery back-up system located on the 9th floor, and a generator located in the garage. From the 4th floor, we removed 3 Liebert Air Conditioners. From the adjacent roof, we removed 2 Liebert 10-Fan Drycoolers and a Liebert Pump Package. We also removed 3 more air conditioners and a large amount of steel racking (for batteries) from the 9th floor. As is usual in a de-installation effort such as this, we left the cleared rooms in "broom clean" condition. The building owner is very happy with our efforts. As a result of being able to react quickly to the landlord's need to have equipment removed, the new tenant - a large federal agency - will be able to start finish-out construction a month sooner than anticipated. As you can see in the photos, the removal of the Liebert Drycoolers from the building roof necessitated lifting the units with a crane. We had to drop the units straight down from the roof onto a flatbed truck in a very narrow alley. Also, the removal of the Liebert Air Conditioners from the 4th floor switch/data center required taking the units out through a building window and onto a small patio. From there we lifted the Liebert units across a street and onto a flatbed truck. |
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These are "before" and "after" pictures from a data center deinstallation our crew did this week in Plano, TX. We took a 5,450 sq ft data center apart on the third floor and removed it from the office building where it was located. Included in the project was the removal of the raised flooring plus understructure, 12 Liebert air conditioners, a Liebert UPS, multiple Liebert PDUs and various pieces of electrical switchgear. 
Also removed from the site was a Trane 400T air cooled chiller that provided chilled water to the Liebert air conditioners and all the associated piping (welded black iron - about 500 feet!) As is usual on projects such as this, we left the site in what we call "broom clean" condition.
From our first visit to the site to make our initial assessment of the project, until our last team member left the jobsite, time elapsed was 9 days. The building owner was thrilled because the removal of the data center made the entire 3rd floor available to the future tenant who was able to begin construction one month earlier than originally planned!
Liebert supplies a very well made red-handled hex key with each new Air Conditioner shipped to customers. After installation, this key is usually left with the unit or given to facility maintenance personnel. The key is used to turn special locking fasteners which hold closed all panels and doors on the air conditioner. Anyone who has used one knows searching for this key can be stressful - especially when a panel needs to be opened quickly.
Sure Power and Environmental's shop foreman came up with this idea (see photo) to be sure he always had the necessary hex key with him - no matter what. We'd like to offer this key to those who work with Liebert equipment.
If you work with Liebert equipment every day, send us an e-mail. Tell us:
:who you are (your name)
:who you work for (Company name and facility)
:your phone number
:where to send the key (physical address, no PO boxes.)
What You Get
Hex key and key ring. The key is the standard size used to open all Liebert panels. The key ring is heavy duty steel - which you'll find can double as a handle to provide leverage when turning the key.
What We Get
Your name, your phone, and address. We want to sell computer room equipment. We'll add you name to our mailing list and from time to time (about once a quarter) send info on available equipment, special deals and other items we think would be of interest to people who work with Liebert equipment every day.
The Deal:
You get a useful tool. How useful depends on how often you open Liebert Air Conditioners. We get a name to add to our mailing list - and hopefully a chance in the future to sell some equipment. Give it a shot - send us your information.
These photos show "before" and "after" views of a small (2880 sq ft) data center in an office building. This data center was decommissioned and all computer equipment was removed. Before the space could be leased by the building owner, the computer room environmental equipment (A/Cs, UPSs), raised computer flooring, flooring sub-structure, cabinets, wire and cabling, and one long wall had to be removed. Sure Companies started the project on Friday morning, and finished removing the last bit of flooring on Saturday afternoon.
The building owner was able to show a prospective tenant the space on Monday morning. The prospective tenant signed the lease because she was able to see "what the space really looked like with all the computer room stuff gone". The building owner was thrilled since the space leased again within two days of becoming vacant.
When Sure Companies does this type of de-installation - we typically leave the space in what is referred to as "broom clean" condition. As you can see in the "after" pictures, the floor is "broom clean". On this project we placed hardboard (Masonite) on the floor to protect the grey marble in every area where we had to move equipment (lobby and one hallway.) We also had to send a team of technicians to pump Freon out of the air conditioners so that it could be recycled.
The picture below shows a load of 4-fan Liebert air conditioning condensers leaving our facility on Friday. The trailer carrying the condensers is a "Conestoga" - a flatbed with a telescoping cover. When fully loaded and covered, the trailer looks like a normal 53' air-ride van. The cover folds into place to cover the load during transport. The cover also folds back out of the way to allow the trailer to be unloaded like a standard flatbed. .
Using a Conestoga is helpful when units must be protected prior to delivery, but must be able to be delivered to a construction site. Construction sites seldom have loading docks. Being able to approach the trailer from the side with a fork-lift makes unloading much easier. Conestoga trailers are ideal for this dual-requirement task (protected transport, and easy unloading).
Arrived at 9:30p on Saturday night to witness the initial start-up of a genset and transfer of the electrical load for a call center and data center for a large financial services vendor. Our customer had recently acquired the facility, and is in the process of upgrading equipment already onsite. As part of this upgrade, Sure Power and Environmental provided a 2 Megawat Generator (Cummins) and 3 Automatic Transfer Switches (ASCO ATS) to the customer. The test was witnessed by the Chief IT person for the financial services company. Also on site was the entire IT staff of the center including the engineers responsible for various areas (telecom, electrical) being served by the Genset.
The start-up and test went smoothly with power being shifted between the Genset and the local utility provider through several iterations of the test protocol. The only glitch came during one of the power-up phases when an old UPS failed to work properly. The UPS "came with the facilty" and it now seems clear why. Upon close inspection, it was discovered that several batteries in one string were at least 5 years old and would not hold a charge.
Looks like the upgrades are coming just in time to keep things running smoothly for this customer!
This photo shows the Genset as it sits at the customer's site.
With cup of coffee in hand, I arrived on-site just before 9:00 on Saturday morning to watch the removal of 2 Liebert condensers (3-fan and 2-fan) from the roof of a furniture rental company's old headquarters office. This photo shows the crane lifting the 3-fan condenser off the roof. It's always exciting to see the crane lift each piece and place it gently on the ground (parking lot - in this case.) Once the crane was rigged (arm added to end of boom so crane could reach from the edge of the building across roof to safely lift units) it took about 20 minutes to remove both condensers from the roof. The weather was clear and there was very little wind - both desirable conditions when lifting something off a 6-floor high roof!
The furniture rental company's offices have been moved to new and larger quarters. All their computer room equipment has already been replaced with larger models of Liebert Air Conditioners, Condensers, UPSs and PDUs. The old data center from which these two last pieces came was decommissioned and removed from the vacated quarters after the new center was built, brought on line, and commissioned.
