Sustainable Technology

using ambient cooling system.

Server nameplate power rating can result in overestimation of power and cooling needs.  …

…   “However, a nameplate label indicates peak power consumption for the worst-case hardware configuration for the server.  This leads to over-demand for power and cooling infrastructure. “   …

Intel Energy Efficiency Trends (PDF).

Cooling

Custom Mechanical Systems and Critchfield Mechanical collaborate to create advanced in-row cooling technology installation for Brocade’s green data center in San Jose.  …

…   “The Brocade San Jose-based data center incorporates technology from CMS and CMI that provides a cutting-edge in-row cooling system with water-side economizer to minimize fan usage and maximize efficiency, saving half a megawatt of energy at full build-out. 

The custom cooling system from CMS and CMI has played a key role in the Brocade data center, featuring fan efficiencies superior to all other cooling options available on the market today.  

Brocade’s data center and its use of custom in-row cooling units, coupled with a highly efficient chilled water plant inclusive of a water-side economizer, provides a mechanical system with a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.3. 

Data centers of this size typically have a PUE of greater than 1.5. 

To ensure a fully-customizable and flexible product, multiple iterations of the design were produced in order to meet Brocade’s specifications; 

CMS also worked with the construction team to design features that will simplify maintenance and improve reliability. 

These features include:

• variable speed ECM motors, 
• fan redundancy, and a 
• low-cost maintenance design. ”   …

Via Custom Mechanical Systems: Brocade San Jose Data Center.

Custom Mechanical Systems.

Critchfield Mechanical.

Brocade integrates green technology into its new datacenter design in San Jose.  …

… “opted for in-row cooling technology, developed by Custom Mechanical Systems, along with water-side economizer technology to help minimize fan usage … ” …

Via ZDNet: Brocade Data Center.

Custom Mechanical Systems.

Discussion of economizers in data center cooling architectures.

SynapSense Corp will enter into an investment and commercial partnership with GE in its market strategy to focus on data center energy services. …

GE, which has used SynapSense technology in many of its data centers including GE Corporate and NBC Universal since 2008, will now collaborate with SynapSense on digital energy through a commercial partnership with GE Intelligent Platforms, a high-performance technology business that provides software, hardware, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing.

The partnership will combine SynapSense’s technology with GE Intelligent Platform’s Proficy Software and Control platform.

This combined offering will enable data center operators to optimize energy use by continuously aligning cooling capacity with changes in IT load, saving up to 35 percent of cooling costs while ensuring security, redundancy and resiliency.

GE’s Proficy software provides real-time insight on data center and other operational performance metrics to give customers information to make better business decisions.

Via GE: SynapSense Data Center Power and Cooling Strategy Cuts Costs.
    

Emerson discusses the integration of economizers into data center cooling architectures through designs that consider humidity, contamination, system reliability, and controls ensuring availability is not compromised.

The Kyoto wheel, a form of enthalpy wheel, can be deployed to maximize the dissipation of heat from the data center at low energy levels.  …

…   “Kyoto wheel is an improved form of the original heat wheel, tailored to the requirements of data centers.

It almost completely separates the outside air from the inside air… “   …

Via Search Data Center: Kyoto Wheel Data Center Cooling.

Keysource collaborates with Petroleum GeoServices to implement ecofris data centre cooling technology, which results in significant tangible energy efficiency benefits.  …

…   “Initial results confirm that the data centre has achieved a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio – an energy calculation recommended by industry sponsored organisation Green Grid – of 1.2 compared to a typical UK figure for a conventionally designed data centre of 2.2. “   …

Via Keysource: Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) data centre case study (PDF).

Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) offers a broad range of products including; seismic and electromagnetic services, data acquisition, processing, reservoir analysis/interpretation and multi-client library data.

Modular cooling has can reduce energy consumption significantly while offering a coefficient of performance (COP) much higher than current approaches. …

Google and its industry peers react to ASHRAE cooling standard for data centers. …

… “Unfortunately, the proposed ASHRAE standard is far too prescriptive. Instead of setting a required level of efficiency for the cooling system as a whole, the standard dictates which types of cooling methods must be used. For example, the standard requires data centers to use economizers — systems that use ambient air for cooling. In many cases, economizers are a great way to cool a data center (in fact, many of our companies’ data centers use them extensively), but simply requiring their use doesn’t guarantee an efficient system, and they may not be the best choice. Future cooling methods may achieve the same or better results without the use of economizers altogether. An efficiency standard should not prohibit such innovation. ” …

Via Google: Setting efficiency goals for data centers

Data center advancements can be leveraged to drive efficiency, such as in-server cooling. …

… “With the growing emphasis on high-density chassis supporting multiple servers and sharing power supplies and cooling, however, the economics of non-air cooling is suddenly making a lot more sense. ” …

Via Information Week: 2010 DataCenter Trends