MILWAUKEE, 5 May 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), a global leader in thermal management, mission-critical building systems, energy efficiency and decarbonisation, is expanding its AI Factory Reference Design Guides with the release of a second guide focused on air-cooled chillers.
Building on the company's water-cooled chiller guide published in February, this latest design marks the next step in the most comprehensive suite of global design guides covering the full data centre thermal chain — with additional guides covering absorption chillers and direct-to-chip liquid cooling.
As AI brings new scale and complexity to data centre design, operators face growing challenges, including electricity demand for cooling systems, rising cooling loop temperatures, efficiency losses caused by heat islands and limited water availability.
Johnson Controls' AI Factory Reference Design Guide series addresses these challenges by explaining how designers and operators can achieve industry-leading energy and water efficiency and minimise noise impacts on surrounding communities, while remaining adaptable to different climates, workloads and growth pathways.
The new guide supports scalable designs for data centres of all sizes, up to a 1 GW AI factory using air-cooled chillers.
