ASHRAE Journal - August 2008 - (Page 52)

Data Center Cooling By C. Mike Scoﬁeld, P Fellow ASHRAE; and Thomas S. Weaver, P .E., .E. Using Wet-Bulb Economizers D ata processing environments were estimated in 2006 to consume approximately 1.5% of the total electricity in the United States. Data center power consumption has roughly doubled in the last ﬁve years and is expected to double again in the next ﬁve years to more than 100 billion kWh.1 Some data centers require 40 to 50 times more power than comparably sized office space. Of the electrical energy consumed by these so-called Internet hotels, often only 30% to 40% of that power is used to operate the computers, servers, and the other electronics in the data center. Most of the rest goes to keeping the hardware cool and humidiﬁed. It is estimated that future electrical energy demand could double for these facilities from 2006 to 2011.2 In Northern California, the renewal of data center construction is causing the local utility some concern. The state hosts ﬁve 52 ASHRAE Journal to 7.5 million ft2 (696 773 m2) of data center construction. In Northern California, the electricity consumed by data centers amounts to 400 MW to 500 MW or 2.5% of the total electricity supplied by Paciﬁc Gas and Electric (PG&E) Company.3 Mark Bramﬁtt, PG&E high tech market manager, has proposed the following actions by his company to stem the electrical demand increase. On a case-by-case basis, PG&E will waive the $500,000 incentive cap for data centers using air-side and water-side economizers for new data center construction. ashrae.org Raise the incentive rate from the current eight cents per kWh to 14 cents for air-side and water-side economizers. In March 2007, PG&E, along with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) issued a report entitled “Data Center Economizer Contamination and Humidity Study,” which published the results of monitoring eight existing data centers in Northern California.4 The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of air-side economizers on energy savings and their impact on indoor particle concentrations and humidity control. Although the data centers using recirculation and minimum outdoor air had lower particle concentration, the data centers using air-side economizers About the Authors C. Mike Scoﬁeld, P .E., is president of Conservation Mechanical Systems in Sebastopol, Calif. Thomas S. Weaver, P is a partner at Conserva.E., tion Mechanical Systems. August 2008 http://ashrae.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - August 2008

ASHRAE Journal - August 2008 Contents Commentary Industry News Letters Meetings and Shows Maintain to Sustain—Delivering ASHRAE’s Sustainability Promise Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation: Current Best Practices Improving Humidity Control With Energy Recovery Ventilation Single- or Two-Stage Compression Data Center Cooling: Using Wet-Bulb Economizers Building Sciences InfoCenter Practical Pointers Products Emerging Technologies Washington Report People Special Products Classified Advertising Advertising Index

ASHRAE Journal - August 2008

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