Improving Energy Efficiency in Data Centers and IT Rooms

Data Centers, IT Rooms and Telecommunication Rooms are built most of the time without any consideration of energy efficiency. Data provided by IT department is exorbitantly high. Consequently CRAC’s selected for cooling duty are over designed. Placement of these cooling equipments is badly planned. Resultantly, despite availability of cooling capacity, indoor conditions are not satisfactory.
After couple of months in to operation, management decides to put additional cooling equipment to bring indoor conditions to desirable levels but without any improvement. It is observed that they consume two to three times required energy but to no advantage.
New Data Centers can be planned with latest technologies, reducing energy consumption. There are certain myths associated with new designs. Raised floor is considered to be indispensible for these areas. This is wrong. Most energy efficient data centers these days are built with solid floor. Indoor conditions are stated to be 19ºc. Today Rack equipment manufacturers allow temperatures from 22ºc to 27ºc. Humidity conditions also are not as stringent as previously considered. Either manufacturers have improved their equipment or previous information was overstated.
With existing set ups we can do lot of things to improve energy consumption. First and foremost is the analysis of hot spots or pockets. Most of the time air distribution through perforated tiles of raised floor is not proper. This results in to hot zones. Some areas are overcooled and others receive hot air. There is cross flow of air from hot to cold side. Thermo graphic techniques are utilized to analyze inside conditions. Racks of equal density are zoned together. If high density racks are placed close to low density, environmental conditions are difficult to control. Preferably these need to be grouped together according to their ratings.
Step two is aisle containment solution. No matter what type of system data room is cooled with, aisle containment is most economical and workable energy improvement strategy. It can be used both for hot aisle and cold aisle. Instead of going for replacements or additional CRAC’s, this route is less cumbersome and cost effective.
Step three is to avoid simultaneous processes of energy wastage. When distribution is not proper, reheat and useless humidification processes are done simultaneously. This wastes energy.
Chilled water based CRAH systems, close coupled systems and economizer operations are other energy conserving techniques.