Patent attributes
Systems and methods for managing airflow for cooling computing devices (e.g. in a data center) in normal and cold environments are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises positioning the computing devices on a plurality of racks with air barriers to create hot and cold aisles. The computing devices may be configured in a first mode to draw in cool air the cold aisles and exhaust heated air into the hot aisles. Temperatures in the cold aisles may be periodically measured. In response to temperatures below a predetermined threshold, one or more of the cold aisles may be converted into a temporary hot aisle by adjusting ventilation openings and configuring a subset of the computing devices to temporarily draw in warm air from the temporary hot aisle.