At the most sensitive end of the spectrum, hospitals rely on their central cooling systems for critical patient care areas, such as operating and emergency rooms. If cooling is lost, subpar environmental conditions could threaten patient health and either prevent procedures from being scheduled, or create a potential liability.
More commonly, many commercial and light manufacturing buildings now have in-house data centers full of servers. These servers might be responsible for critical information, such as personal information, real-time financial transactions, or airplane tickets. They also generate large amounts of heat, which either must be dissipated or offset with cool air. A loss of chilled-water cooling capacity for even a few minutes could cause a server room to shut down.