One thing we are seeing more and more of today is confusion over what temperature and humidity parameters data centers should be designed for.  Most of the discussion seems to assume that there is a monolithic block of data centers that can all be designed the same way.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Most of the data centers in existence today have a mixture of technologies and systems that all have varying environmental requirements.  We typically refer to these as mixed use data centers.  Unlike an E-Bay, Google, Microsoft or Apple data center, there is not rack after rack of the same equipment, all with similar operating requirements.  That is a very small, but highly publicized part of the market.  Everyone loves to write about the latest designs from Yahoo, Google, Apple, Etc, but they are not representative of the larger data center market as a whole. 

I know these data centers don’t get the publicity of the designs that push the envelope, but they are much more representative of the data center market as a whole.  We certainly do our share of cutting edge designs, but the majority of our clients are looking for ways to add capacity and increase the efficiency of their “traditionally designed” data centers.  This may include air and water side economizers and/or more efficient UPS systems and distribution.   The designs vary significantly, but the one thing these data centers have in common is that they all have equipment requirements that would preclude some of the modern designs that have little to no temperature and humidity control.

Published on 30th January 2012 by Ron Hughes-Data Center Dynamics

Every 3 to 4 months, DVL hosts a small Data Center Users' Forum.  The mission of the DCUF is to provide a commercial free forum where members collaborate on relevant mission-critical issues, new technologies, customer testimonials, and best practices affecting reliability, availability, and lowest cost of operation.

Last Friday, the DCUF, which includes IT and facilities professionals from multiple industry types, discussed various topics including:  Data Center Infrastructure Management, metering and trending, bridging the gap between IT and Facilities, outsourcing vs. keeping everything in-house, industry power trends, passive RFID asset technology, containment, power outage/root cause analysis.

For more information about the Data Center Users' Forum/DVL:

An alternative approach to conventional alternating-current (AC) power uses a direct-current (DC) power distribution scheme throughout a data center. Most data center server racks are not currently powered this way, but with the advent of servers on the market that can operate with either AC or DC, it is possible to use the DC powering approach, thus eliminating extra power conversion steps and losses. Other benefits include reduced cooling needs, higher equipment densities, and reduced heat-related failures.

This web site describes two pioneering demonstrations - one where direct current is distributed at the facility level to racks of computers that have been modified to directly accept high voltage direct current (DC) and another where the DC power conversion occurs at the rack level and DC is then directly distributed to servers within the rack. In typical data centers, the loss in electrical power through conversions of alternating current (AC) to DC to AC to DC occurs for all power flowing to the IT equipment. Efficiency gains have a magnifying effect by reducing need for HVAC (e.g. 10% saving at the UPS level mean about 10% energy savings for the entire data center, compared to a very efficient AC baseline case and assuming the HVAC system consumes as much power as the IT equipment).  Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory .

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A New Study Reinforces Case For DC Power Saving

It’s been five years since a study by Lawrence Berkeley National Labs outlined the potential for DC power distribution to cut data center energy use by 10 to 20 percent. But adoption of DC in data centers remains limited, even as the industry aggressively pursues a wide array of other energy savings strategies.

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Alternating current (AC) power is ubiquitous in data centers, and it's hard to change the status quo. But a direct current (DC) power demonstration project conducted by the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory produced some interesting results: a 7% energy savings over top-notch AC technologies.

SearchDataCenter.com recently reported on an experiment in using DC power in a data center at Syracuse University, furthering the practical research into this data center power option. While total DC power infrastructure for data centers isn't quite ready, these investigations are putting the concept on the top of mind for data center professionals concerned about power consumption.

Will DC Take to the Data Center?  DC Power could save a bundle, but tech managers are just exploring it.  

More than a century after DC bowed to AC as the most efficient method of electrical distribution, DC is getting a second look. But this time around, the ambitions of DC supporters are more narrowly focused. They're touting DC over AC as a way to make the facilities that house massive and power-ravenous data computing, storage, and communications systems more energy efficient. In a replay of the original AC-DC fight, however, AC supporters counter that tried-and-true AC, especially if it's optimized for efficiency, still reigns superior.

The battle is taking place against a backdrop of the surging "green" movement and an increased awareness of how much energy data centers use (and waste) because of how they're configured. Electrical engineering conferences, white papers, and demonstration projects that assess the comparable benefits of AC and DC for data centers have been proliferating. They've accelerated since 2006, when Congress directed the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to oversee efforts to mitigate spiraling data center power consumption.

Has AC met its match?

DC has emerged as one possible fix, primarily because it would eliminate one of the biggest sources of energy loss and waste with AC - the multiple back-and-forth transformations and conditioning needed to step voltage down for use by IT equipment. By converting high-voltage AC to DC earlier, keeping it in DC form, and delivering it directly to rack-based servers, energy loss from conversion and the resultant heat that must be removed with cooling that also requires energy could be reduced. In fact, some studies peg energy savings as high as 30%.

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With industry forecasts predicting that server and data center energy consumption will nearly double from 2006 to 2011 nationally, the U.S. EPA is encouraging organizations to improve data center energy efficiency.  To help organizations meet this goal, the EPA has announced updates to the energy efficiency requirements for a variety of Energy Star qualified products and equipment for data centers.

"All Energy Star labeled data center products will come with an associated Power and Performance Datasheet (PPDS) that lists product information and detailed test results," said EPA. "Energy Star recognizes that data center products are highly complex systems that require more than just a label to understand their energy performance. All data center products will be tested according to their specific Energy Star test procedure, the results of which will be reported in a standardized format in the PPDS."

In the update, EPA announced new spec process for Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), Data Center Storage, and Servers V2.0.  

>>Read the entire artilcle now  

>>Top 12 Ways To Decrease Energy Consumption of Your Data Center

Emerson's LEED Data Center | Discover the strategies and technologies Emerson employed to maximize efficiency, scalability and reliability in their state-of-the-art data center.