Ice Energy to cool data centers

Ice Energy said on Monday it has partnered with data center cooling company Data Aire to make a hybrid air conditioner that uses ice for efficient cooling.

Ice Energy's rooftop ice-cooled air conditioner.

(Credit: Ice Energy)

The idea behind Ice Energy's Ice Bear air conditioner is to make ice in a storage tank during off-peak times to take advantage of lower rates. The machine uses the stored ice to make cool air during times of higher energy demand--and higher rates.

Ice Energy and Data Aire said they have tested a way to link the Ice Bear to Data Aire's cooling systems. The companies said that the combination is more efficient than stand-alone systems and will cut peak electricity usage.

Ice Energy originally expected to make these refrigerator-size units for consumers, but has since focused on selling to commercial customers. California utilities PG&E, Southern California Edison, and Anaheim Public Utilities offer incentives for installation of the Ice Bear.

[theonlybuster]

Sounds like every kid's first thought when trying to figure out how an air-conditioning unit works.

[EricTh]

Another way to cool datacenters is to automatically shut off servers which are being under utilized and sending load to the other computers. We use a solution from http://www.alpiron.com to do this and it was really easy to install.

[NewWestMedia]

Great technology. We produced a video for ICE illustrating their capabilities: http://www.newwestmedia.tv/landing/IceEnergy.html