Cooling the Data Center Going Green

MAY 2012

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Why Go Green

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GDIT 3

Cooling the Data Center is the single greatest

contributed to CO2 emissions

Overall eGA eGov Projects - Scope and Budget Statistics

Key Findings

• Cooling the Data Center accounts for over 63% of the power consumptions

• This number is even higher in our region as chiller efficiency starts to decrease at temperatures of 40°C and above

• Cloud Computing will have greatly increase the need for computing power and hence add greater strain to the environment.

93% 87%

Budget Statistics

Cooling IT

63% of Data Center Energy Consumption is for Cooling

Cooling IT

Powering IT

Conversion

Cooling Data Center

Cooling More Efficiently

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GDIT 5

Ambient Temperature

Benchmark Study Overview Ambient temperature is the average

temperature in a data center

Easiest efficiency target and often the one that is most overlooked

Historically, data centers were operated with room temperatures in the 20°C to 22°C range

Today's server, storage and networking equipment have operating temperature variances that can easily exceed 35°C

Raising the ambient temperature by 0.5°C can save upward of 3% in energy costs

Data center operators should consider an average ambient temperature of 25°C

Output

GDIT 6

Hot and Cold Containment

Benchmark Study Overview For the past 10 years or so, the idea of hot and cold aisle has become standard operating procedure

Higher-density racks would often create hot spots on the floor

Well-designed data centers have solved the hot spot issue by concentrating high-density racks into hot or cold containment aisles

Heat leaving the racks is contained within the row via walls, and then is quickly channeled upward to the plenum

Hot or cold containment zones have two distinct benefits:

Reduction of energy required to cool the data center floor through the elimination of heat leakage

Ability to fully utilize rack densities

Output

GDIT 7

Airflow

Benchmark Study Overview The primary force for cooling in data

centers is air, and the control of airflow can be a simple method of increasing cooling efficiencies with minimal expense.

Equipment is installed in racks and the rack has open space, server administrators fail to install blanking panels

Hot air from one server easily moves up the rack, contaminating (heating up) equipment above it

A second and more basic method of improving airflow is to remove any blockages from under the floor itself

Power and data cables over the years, is often one of the biggest impediments of good airflow and can restrict efficient cooling by as much as 30%

Output

GDIT 8

Airflow

Benchmark Study Overview

The primary force for cooling in data centers is air, and the control of airflow can be a simple method of increasing cooling efficiencies with minimal expense.

Equipment is installed in racks and the rack has open space, server administrators fail to install blanking panels

Hot air from one server easily moves up the rack, contaminating (heating up) equipment above it

A second and more basic method of improving airflow is to remove any blockages from under the floor itself

Power and data cables over the years, is often one of the biggest impediments of good airflow and can restrict efficient cooling by as much as 30%

Output

GDIT 9

Technology Refresh

Benchmark Study Overview Using technology refresh as a cooling

solution may seem counterintuitive to many people, but it is a proven solution for many

Growth and a continuous drive toward virtualization while keeping existing equipment in "maintenance mode“

One reason is that the energy requirements of older servers, in some cases, are three to four times greater than new equipment.

In recent years, x86 server performance has been doubling with each new generation, while also becoming more energy-efficient. Doubling the performance and halving the power in the same space is a sound cost-saving concept

Output

Renewable Cooling

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GDIT

This increase in size and decrease in efficiency will lead to a greater power consumption

In Bahrain the temperatures rise to over 50C Humidity in the summer months reaches an

average of 90% Humidity

Cooling Efficiency Decrease

Energy

consumption

Temperature increase

Retention

At such temperature and humidity the air-conditioning units need to be sized much bigger and will work less efficiently

Effects of Heat

GDIT

Propane-powered refrigerator

These refrigerators are interesting because they have no moving parts and use gas or propane as their primary energy source. Also, they use heat to produce the cold inside the refrigerator.

Why not use the Sun’s energy against its self

and convert Solar Heat into Solar Cooling?

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GDIT

GDIT

• Driving energy for absorption chillers is taken from renewable energy and thus CO2-neutral.

• Reduction of electrical consumption and thus of cooling-related CO2 emissions.

• Facilitates the use of renewable cooling for existing properties.

• Absorption chillers complements air-cooled compression chillers in arid climate zones affected by a rise in ambient temperatures: since the efficiency of air-cooled compression chillers is drastically reduced by ambient temperatures above 40°C.

• The use of ICE storage systems for use at night to cool the data center will enable 24 hour free cooling. This is achieved by connecting the ICE storage system to the absorption chiller and using the excess cold water to produce ICE and store the ICE for when its needed.

Using the Sun’s Energy

GDIT

Each of these techniques have been proven again and again by large and small data centers worldwide. While some solutions may not be right for your environment, implementation of any of these solutions can help reduce cooling costs and, therefore, reduce month-to-month operating costs while freeing up power and cooling resources for other workloads.

Bottom Line