Answer to Cooling Data Centers Could Be Surprisingly Low Tech
Written by Megan Treacy via ECOGEEK
Data centers are typically very carefully controlled environments with large chillers keeping all the equipment at a regulated temperature. All of this cooling requires a large amount of energy, but data center developers are discovering a far less energy-demanding and low-tech way to keep things cool: outside air.
A trade group called The Green Grid that focuses on increasing energy efficiency in data centers has released online tools that allow data center operators to figure out if their center is a good candidate for outside cooling. Depending on the location and set up of the data center, the tool will calculate the possible energy and monetary savings of using outside cooling.
Ways of bringing in the cool outside air are varied and simple from knocking down walls to bringing the air in through pipes. But the most important aspect of outside cooling is that it’s free.
As an example, a 1 MW data center in San Jose where power costs 12.78 cents per kWh would save $66,000 a year by using outside cooling. Filtering the air would be a concern for most centers, but could be easily managed and, for the amount of savings outside air could bring, easily worth the effort it would take.
via Earth2Tech
