Data Center Cooling Methods

Cooling is an essential factor of every data center.  As data centers are turned on, heat is an inevitable part of operating the data center.  Solutions to the heat from the data centers concentrate on various types of cooling methods.  Turning down the heat and chilling the data center ensures valuable data will not be fried and production can continue as usual.

Past methods of cooling data centers ignored energy efficiency leading to ineffective methods of cooling.  Failed cooling methods funneled all the energy to the data servers, which created more heat and neglected the energy required to cool the center.  To combat failed cooling resolutions, data center managers have recognized new cooling methods focused more on the balance of energy efficiency in the data center.

Today’s data center cooling solutions focus on the balance between the energy needed to operate and cool the data center.  Industry developments, such as the application of psychometrics science, have resulted in more efficient ways to operate data centers to prevent the servers from overheating.  Another method of in-row cooling provides an innovative way to reduce the energy consumed in cooling the data center.

New cooling methods to reduce energy consumption have been created, however specific knowledge was required to gain insight about using less energy while cooling a data center.  The concept of cooling the data center with air required data center managers to understand psychometrics science and thermodynamics.  Also, the presence of gases in the air furthers the complex nature of utilizing air as a coolant.  Still, individuals in the industry have persisted in understanding the concepts of new cooling methods.

Adiabatic cooling is one method with gray areas for the industry to learn about.  With the cooling method, air is utilized as a coolant with considerations.  A main consideration is geographical location, which would influence the outside air temperature.  Another consideration is how climate change could impact data centers in the future decades.  Along with the considerations come the elements of cooling and the metrics to measure the techniques.

Elements of cooling involves the equipment required to cool the data center. Standard air-conditioning equipment is notable in achieving cooling as well as other refrigerant methods, including fluorocarbon.  Water also can play a role in cooling data centers, which may be preferred by data center managers due to its efficiency to handle more heat.  Despite the element, the heat is transferred to the element to then be condensed and moved away from the servers to protect the servers from overheating.

As the cooling process continues, metrics are gathered to assess the efficiency.  Energy remains a high priority for data centers, and they are focused on figuring out how to consume less energy during processes, such as cooling.  Industry standards, such as the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), stand to guide data centers in their goals to reduce energy consumption while cooling their systems.  Furthermore, cooling systems methods and metrics will be refined as engineers continue to develop more efficient means of cooling data centers.