To cool data centers, let the breeze flow in

The Green Grid consortium has a radical idea for cooling energy-intensive data centers: opening the window.

The group on Thursday released an online tool for evaluating how data centers in North America can tap the outside air to augment data center air conditioning systems during cooler weather.

(Credit: Green Grid)

The tool lets people calculate, based on a ZIP code, how much outdoor air could save in cooling, a significant contribution to data center operating costs. In many places, the outdoor air is cooler than the temperature inside data centers.

The Green Grid said that a data center in San Jose, Calif., could save $66,000 a year with outside air cooling and one in Herndon, Va., could get $20,000 a year in free cooling.

Outdoor air cooling is already done among some new data data centers designed with energy efficiency in mind.

Hosting company ADC (Advanced Data Centers) opened a facility in Sacramento, Calif., last year that got a platinum level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification. It will be 25 percent to 30 percent more energy efficient than the industry standard, in part by using an outdoor air circulation system.

[Jimww]

Move them all up north, Blend the electrons from grid and local wind turbines for power, Blend outside air and waste heat form the electronics to control the internal environment.

[Jack K1]

It's not just as simple as opening the windows.

The incoming air should be hepa-filtered. Dust gathers quickly on fans and heat sinks, thereby reducing efficiency, increasing operating temperatures, and reducing chip life.

Yes, waste heat should be re-circulated to the rest of the building, but this recirculation must be automatically cut off in the event the center's fire suppression system activates.

[sythara]

Actually its very easy. Rather than use an open cycle system by used outdoor air to cool the system, use a closed cycle system. The best way to explain is to think on how a nuclear reactor operated. But in this case, use the outdoor air to cool the water thats brought through chillers that are connected to an internal watercooling system for chilling the equipment. We use it at work and its amazing, and energy efficent.

This is hardly a new consept.

[MD_Willington]

How is this a radical idea?

There are ski resorts using similar cooling for their walk in freezers...

There are farmers in India cooling green houses in a somewhat similar manner...


This is "old hat"

[sythara]

must be a slow news day

[heapmaster]

Green, solar powered web hosting provider AISO.net (www.aiso.net) is already doing this using 100% outside air 100% of the time. There are no CFC refrigerants like you find in regular A/C systems, in their systems, plus their Coolerado A/C systems only use 600 watts max!