Building automation 路 Free
Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM
How data centres are cooled, controlled and run: hot and cold aisles, CRAC and CRAH units, chilled water plant, economisers, liquid and immersion cooling for AI racks, cooling redundancy and continuous cooling, BMS design, DCIM and operations, and PUE, WUE and CUE. Built on MEP Academy, TEQNYAT and Bryce Anderson lessons.
Inside the course
From the lessons
How a data centre is cooled
MEP Academy
CRAC, CRAH and chilled water
MEP Academy
Data centre HVAC in depth
MEP Academy
Liquid and immersion cooling for AI
MEP Academy
Designing the power and cooling infrastructure
TEQNYAT
BMS for data centres
Bryce Anderson
Lesson frames belong to the creators named in the Credits below and are shown from YouTube.
What you will learn
Trace the heat path from chip to atmosphere and calculate the airflow and water flow a load needs; compare CRAC and CRAH units, air- and water-cooled plant, and containment options; explain economisers and chiller efficiency in COP and kW per ton; describe direct-to-chip, rear-door and immersion cooling for AI racks; size cooling units with redundancy and plan continuous cooling through a power failure; design BMS points, controllers and alarms that survive a single failure; use DCIM for capacity and change; and report PUE, WUE and CUE.
- Trace the heat path and calculate the airflow and water flow a load needs
- Compare CRAC and CRAH units, containment options and air- and water-cooled plant
- Explain economisers and calculate chiller COP and kW per ton
- Describe direct-to-chip, rear-door and immersion cooling for AI racks
- Size cooling with N+1 and plan continuous cooling through a power failure
- Design a BMS that survives a single controller failure, with points and alarms
- Use DCIM to find the limiting resource and stranded capacity
- Calculate PUE, WUE and CUE and explain what each misses
For you
Taking Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM from the United States
- Free in the United States, as everywhere, and self-paced: lessons, notes and the final assessment are open at any hour, so your time zone and shift pattern do not matter.
- The optional certificate for learners in the United States is a one-off US$28.99. What you get for it
- Plants across the Americas most often run Allen-Bradley, Siemens and Inductive Automation; each has its own free course to take next.
- See automation and engineering jobs in the United States, and what the industry looks like in Houston, Detroit and Chicago.
- EDWartens also has a regional site for the United States, for classroom training and local support: edwartens.com/us.
The course project 路 about 10 hours
Preparing a colocation data hall for AI racks: cooling design basis, BMS points and alarms, integrated cooling test and capacity report
Act as the mechanical and controls engineer preparing an existing data hall to take liquid-cooled AI racks alongside its air-cooled customers. Write the cooling design basis with the heat load and redundancy, build the BMS points list and alarm list, write the integrated cooling test, and report capacity and efficiency. The sample pack shows each document for a colocation hall in Singapore.
Sample document pack, 5 documents, filled in for the scenario
- PlanCooling design basis: Data Hall 3 AI row
- Points listBMS points list: Data Hall 3 AI row
- Alarm listAlarm list: Data Hall 3 AI row cooling
- SATIntegrated cooling site acceptance test: AI row
- ReportCapacity and efficiency report: Data Hall 3 after the AI row
Read inside the course and download as a workbook. The project is optional practice, marked when you submit it; the certificate needs only the modules and the final assessment.
Course content
9 modules 路 21 lessons 路 3h 46m
In order, at whatever pace suits you. Each module ends with a practice task that builds on the last.
- 01How a data centre is cooled2 lessons14m
- 02CRAC, CRAH and chilled water3 lessons22m
- 03Data centre HVAC in depth2 lessons26m
- 04Liquid and immersion cooling for AI2 lessons18m
- 05Designing the power and cooling infrastructure4 lessons42m
- 06BMS for data centres2 lessons29m
- 07DCIM, operations and management2 lessons28m
- 08Sustainability, and what comes next3 lessons36m
Requirements
- Who it is for
- Intermediate. You should know basic HVAC or building services: temperature, airflow, heat and power. No data centre experience is needed.
- Software
- None required. A spreadsheet for the calculations. What to download, and how
- Hardware
- None.
Software you need
What to download, where from, what it costs and how to install it. Every link goes to the maker's own site, never a mirror.
Nothing to install
Any spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice Calc) is enough for the calculations.
Optional
Useful, not needed to finish the course.
- 01Free
LibreOffice
The Document Foundation
- Runs on
- Windows 10 or 11, macOS 11 or newer (Intel or Apple silicon), Linux
- Account
- None needed
- Size
- up to 1.5 GB of disk space on Windows
LibreOffice is free, open-source software under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, for any use including business. Calc is its spreadsheet.
Steps
- 1.Open the LibreOffice download page.
- 2.Check the page has picked your operating system, then select Download.
- 3.Run the installer (administrator rights are needed on Windows).
- 4.Start LibreOffice Calc for spreadsheet work.
- 5.Save as .xlsx if you need to share files with Excel users.
- Choose the latest main version unless your organisation asks for the older, more conservative release.
Official download pagelibreoffice.org
Checked against each maker's own page on 27 September 2026. Trial lengths and editions change; the maker's page is the final word.
Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM at a glance
Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM is a free, self-paced online course from EDWartens for HVAC, BMS and facility engineers working in or moving into data centres. It has 9 modules and 3h 46m of video lessons by TEQNYAT, MEP Academy, Bryce Anderson, with written notes and worked problems, a practical project with a document pack and a 15-question final assessment (pass mark 60%). Learning is free with an account; an optional certificate with a public verification code is issued when you pass. Last updated 27 September 2026.
All course factsHide course facts
- Price
- Free, for good. No trial, no card. The only paid item is the optional certificate, a small one-off fee.
- Who it is for
- HVAC, BMS and facility engineers working in or moving into data centres
- Format
- 9 self-paced modules, 3h 46m of video, written notes, a practice task per module and one final assessment.
- Level
- Intermediate. Intermediate. You should know basic HVAC or building services: temperature, airflow, heat and power. No data centre experience is needed.
- Brand
- Vendor-neutral
- Software
- None required. A spreadsheet for the calculations.
- Hardware
- None.
- Certificate
- Optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion, verifiable by code. Not a vendor credential.
- Video lessons by
- TEQNYAT, MEP Academy, Bryce Anderson (independent creators, credited below)
- Language
- English
- Last updated
- 27 September 2026
A shareable EDWartens certificate
Finish every module and pass the final assessment, and the optional EDWartens certificate is yours. It carries a unique verification code on a public page anyone can check, so it stands up when a recruiter looks it up. See it below.
The course itself stays free whether or not you ever buy one.
Stuck? Ask a practising engineer
A free course usually means a comment section and hope. This one does not. Every module has an Ask-your-trainer panel that reaches the same engineers who teach our paid programme: people who commission panels for a living, not moderators.
Pairs well with
PLC programming 路 FreeSiemens TIA PortalFrom zero electrical knowledge to a working, simulated S7-1200 program, for nothing.
PLC programming 路 FreeSiemens TIA Portal in Three HoursThe first three hours of the Siemens TIA Portal course, cut to end on a win: what a PLC is, how it is wired, a project configured in TIA Portal, and your first ladder program running in simulation. Finish it in an evening or two, earn a certificate, and carry straight on into the full course.
PLC programming 路 FreeTIA Portal: Build a MachineOne machine, start to finish. Take a bottle filling line from a written specification and an I/O list to a structured S7-1200 program with a fill station, a capper, a reject sorter and an operator screen with alarms, then test it against a written record and archive it for hand-over. The lessons are the reference; the machine is yours, and it is what you submit.
Instrumentation 路 FreeInstrumentation for PLC EngineersThe half of the loop that is not code. Follow one measurement from the transmitter in the field, down the 4-20 mA loop, into the analog card, through NORM_X and SCALE_X into engineering units, out again to a valve, and back to the control room when the reading is wrong.More free courses: Free BMS and building automation courses 路 Free data centre courses
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Reviews here are written only by learners who have finished every module of Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM, and they are published exactly as written. Finish the course and yours will be the first.
Common questions
Who is the Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM course for?
HVAC, mechanical, controls and facilities engineers moving into data centres, and data centre technicians who want to understand the cooling and BMS behind their daily work. Basic HVAC knowledge is assumed.
How is it different from Data Centre Electrical and Critical Power?
That course covers the electrical side: power paths, UPS, generators and electrical studies. This one covers cooling, BMS, DCIM and sustainability. Together they cover the two halves of data centre infrastructure.
Does it cover liquid cooling for AI?
Yes. A full module covers direct-to-chip cold plates, CDUs, rear-door heat exchangers and single- and two-phase immersion, with the flow calculations.
How long does the Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM course take?
About 6.7 hours of video lessons across eight teaching modules, plus the notes, practice questions, the final assessment and an optional project of around 10 hours. At a few hours a week it fits into three to four weeks.
What is the project in the Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM course?
You prepare a colocation data hall in Singapore for five 80 kW liquid-cooled AI racks: a cooling design basis, a BMS points list and alarm list, an integrated cooling acceptance test, and a capacity and efficiency report. A worked sample pack shows each document.
Do I need DCIM or BMS software?
No. The course explains what they do and how they are designed; the exercises use a spreadsheet.
Is the Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM course really free?
Yes. Every module, the notes, the project and the final assessment. The only paid item is the certificate, if you want it.
What certificate does the Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM course give?
An EDWartens Certificate of Completion, issued when you pass the final assessment, with a number anyone can verify on our site. It is not a vendor or Uptime Institute certification, and EDWartens is not affiliated with either.
What you walk away with
Your certificate for Data Centre Cooling, BMS and DCIM
Finish the course, pass the final, and this is the document with your name on it.
Verifiable by anyone
Adds to LinkedIn in one click
QR code on the certificate
Names what you can do
A permanent link
Earned, not attended
Learning is free. The certificate is optional.
Add it now and pay only when you have finished the course, or come back for it later. One-off, US$28.99, with a receipt.
Issued by EDWartens, the training division of Wartens, as a Certificate of Completion for this self-paced course. Sold by Wartens Ltd (England and Wales). It is not a vendor certification, a university award or a CPD-accredited activity, and it does not certify competence on live equipment. Delivered electronically; see the refund policy.
Credits
Who made the video lessons
The video lessons in this course were created by the people below, not by EDWartens. Every lesson streams from its creator's own YouTube channel; EDWartens neither hosts nor sells that footage, and the creators are not affiliated with EDWartens and do not endorse this course. What EDWartens wrote is the study plan, the notes, the practice tasks and the assessments.
- TEQNYATthe Datacenter Design & Operations Course episodes on power and cooling infrastructure, data centre management and operations, sustainability and green data centres, and emerging trends
- MEP Academythe explainers on data centre cooling methods, hot and cold aisle containment, CRAC and CRAH units, chilled water systems, air- and water-cooled plant, data centre HVAC, refrigerant economisers, liquid cooling for AI and immersion cooling
- Bryce Andersonthe BMS design lessons for data centres: N+1 controller design, power and alarms
If you are one of these creators and would like a lesson removed or credited differently, write to info@wartens.com.