In a typical company, data centers account for less than 5% of the building infrastructure space yet can consume well over 50% of the total energy bill. With such large power consumption, they are prime targets for energy efficient design measures that can save money and reduce electricity use.
But the critical nature of data center loads elevates many design criteria -- chiefly reliability and high power density capacity – far above efficiency. Short design cycles often leave little time to fully assess efficient design opportunities or consider first cost versus life cycle cost issues. This can lead to designs that are simply scaled up versions of standard office space approaches or that re-use strategies and specifications that worked “good enough” in the past without regard for energy performance.
Air management has become the number one issue due to the highly concentrated heat profiles of today’s IT equipment. The concept of flooding the facility with cold air is neither energy efficient nor operationally efficient. Properly designed air management systems reduce energy costs, increase the data centers density capacity, and reduces heat related load processing failures. Changes in IT equipment operating standards and the 2009 ASHRAE guidelines for temperature and humidity conditions in data centers have opened the door to energy savings opportunities. Understanding how to optimize cooling capacity while maintaining the right environment for IT equipment is key to generating substanial energy savings. In our experience virtually every data center can easily achieve energy savings of 30%.
SCTi has the expertise to help companies improve and optimize data center operation. Services include energy audits, air flow mapping using computerized modeling, thermal studies and efficiency testing. We have the expertise to facilitate the management of your data centre, reduce operating costs and extend the life of existing facilities while greatly reducing energy costs. Our clients include government, technology and retail companies and health organizations.
