Business
Johnson Controls launches series of thermal management reference design guides for gigawatt-scale AI data centers
Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, today announced the launch of its Reference Design Guide Series for 1 Gigawatt AI data centers. Each guide in the series maps the full thermal chain, offering cooling architectures tailored to diverse compute densities, geographies and elevations. The series begins with a detailed blueprint for water-cooled chiller plants with future guides to address air-cooled and absorption chiller solutions.
About this update from Johnson Controls International Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"Comprehensive guides address water-cooled, air-cooled and absorption chiller use cases, integrated with advanced building controls, for next-generation AI factories","length":164,"tagName":"p","attribs":{}},{"type":"text","content":"MILWAUKEE, Feb. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, today announced the launch of its Reference Design Guide Series for 1 Gigawatt AI data centers. Each guide in the series maps the full thermal chain, offering cooling architectures tailored to diverse compute densities, geographies and elevations. The series begins with a detailed blueprint for water-cooled chiller plants with future guides to address air-cooled and absorption chiller solutions.","length":531,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"As AI transforms industries, the scale and complexity of data center infrastructure is rapidly evolving. The ability to efficiently manage thermal loads at gigawatt scale is now a critical enabler for AI innovation, and the industry faces mounting pressure to deliver facilities that are not only high-performing, but also sustainable and future-ready. Johnson Controls' Reference Design Guide Series responds to this challenge by outlining how to achieve industry-leading energy and water efficiency (PUE and WUE) while maintaining flexibility to scale across diverse climates and operational requirements.","length":611,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"The guide outlines a complete thermal architecture supporting both liquid and air- cooled- IT loads through integrated computer room air handlers (CRAHs), fan coil walls, coolant distribution units (CDUs) and high efficiency YORK centrifugal chillers. It provides- detailed sizing guidance for 220MW compute quadrants and defines temperature and operating conditions across all major facility loops, including Technology Cooling System (TCS) loops supporting next- generation GPUs.","length":481,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"Key outcomes enabled by the updated design include:","length":51,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"list","items":[{"val":[{"type":"text","content":"Zero Water Consumption: A fully water free heat rejection process using dry coolers, reducing operational costs and advancing sustainability objectives.","length":152,"tagName":"p"}]},{"val":[{"type":"text","...