Cooling Data Centers Could Prevent Massive Electrical Waste

[Axemantitan]

"It is estimated that the data storage sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of the U.S. total, or more than the electricity consumed by the nation’s color televisions and similar to the amount of electricity consumed by approximately 5.8 million average U.S. households. These numbers are only expected to grow.

The energy used by the nation’s servers and data centers is growing at an unsustainable rate. Not only that, but web servers are notoriously inefficient. For example, computer servers are used at only 6 percent of their capacity on average, while data center facilities operate at roughly 65% to 75% efficiency, meaning that 25% to 35% of all the energy consumed by servers is wasted (converted to heat).

If we are to even consider reducing our energy consumption and carbon footprint, the growing demands generated by our web servers must be near the top of the list of possible improvements. And the Department of Energy agrees."

http://cleantechnica.com/2008/06/27/cooling-data-centers-could-prevent-massive-electrical-waste/

 

[comictimes]

I'm actually interning at a lab this summer (not one of the ones mentioned) dealing with indoor environment and energy stuff and some of the people working in the same lab as me are also working on this, although from what I understand they're focusing on the possibility of simply using outside air for cooling when it's already cold outside.

Pretty interesting stuff though, and really important seeing as how necessary server rooms are and will continue to be.

 

[TwinCities Dan]

Very interesting article, thanks for the link!