1. Cooling the Data Center
Going Green
MAY 2012
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2. Why Go Green
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3. Cooling the Data Center is the single greatest
contributed to CO2 emissions
Overall eGA eGov Projects - Scope and Budget Statistics
Key Findings
Cooling Data Center
• Cooling the Data Center
accounts for over 63% of
the power consumptions
Budget Statistics
Conversion
• This number is even higher
in our region as chiller
Powering IT 63% of Data Center Energy
efficiency starts to
Consumption is for Cooling decrease at temperatures of
40°C and above
Cooling IT
Cooling IT
• Cloud Computing will have
greatly increase the need
for computing power and
87% hence add greater strain to
93%
the environment.
GDIT 3

4. Cooling More Efficiently
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5. Ambient Temperature
 Ambient temperature is the average
temperature in a data center Benchmark Study Overview
 Easiest efficiency target and often Output
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
GDIT 5

6. Hot and Cold Containment
 For the past 10 years or so, the idea of
Benchmark Study Overview
hot and cold aisle has become
standard operating procedure
Output
 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
GDIT 6

7. Airflow
 The primary force for cooling in data
centers is air, and the control of Benchmark Study Overview
airflow can be a simple method of
increasing cooling efficiencies with Output
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%
GDIT 7

8. Airflow
 The primary force for cooling in data
centers is air, and the control of Benchmark Study Overview
airflow can be a simple method of
increasing cooling efficiencies with
minimal expense. Output
 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%
GDIT 8

9. Technology Refresh
 Using technology refresh as a cooling
Benchmark Study Overview
solution may seem counterintuitive to
many people, but it is a proven Output
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
GDIT 9

10. Renewable Cooling
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11. Effects of Heat
 In Bahrain the temperatures rise to over 50C
Temperature  Humidity in the summer months reaches an
increase average of 90% Humidity
 At such temperature and humidity the air-
Cooling conditioning units need to be sized much bigger
Efficiency and will work less efficiently
Decrease
Energy  This increase in size and decrease in efficiency will
lead to a greater power consumption
consumption
Retention
GDIT

12. 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.
GDIT

13. Why not use the Sun’s energy against its self
and convert Solar Heat into Solar Cooling?
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14. GDIT

15. Using the Sun’s Energy
• 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.
GDIT

16. Bottom Line
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.
GDIT