Another twist to energy conservation is energy reuse. It is possible to use the waste heat generated in a data center for non data center heating needs. This can be thought of as Energy Recycling, a method of reducing the impact of data centers on the environment. A great opportunity to enable a data center for energy reuse is at their conception as a goal during the design. With the growing number of data centers being built, now is the time to integrate energy saving and reuse methods. Data centers located in climates with a need for heating, will hopefully recover and reuse a majority of their operating energy for heating non data center areas and adjacent buildings in the future. Since data centers operate at a relatively constant energy demand, they offer a stable and near constant source of heat. The colder the environment, the more financially attractive it can be to install the equipment needed to recover and transfer the heat from the data center to adjoining areas or even neighboring buildings. Imagine data centers located in downtown areas of the city sending off their heat energy and heating other buildings as if they were a utility provider!
Read Data Center Heat Recovery Helps Intel Create Green Facility to see more about what we are doing to reclaim and recycle energy.
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Doug Garday
in response to: Hilorey
Dear Hilorey
I'd delete your comment, but its the only one I got so far. This subject must be about as exciting as watching corn grow.
BTW - Is your name Hilorey or Hillary?
Ralph Sieja
I am attempting to have some dialogue with Doug Garday regarding his white paper titled "Air-Cooled High Performance Data Centers: Case Studies and Best Methods". Having been in the access flooring industry for over 25 years and now the data center cooling industry via Liebert, I am interested in discussing the concept of additional cooling. In particular, the use of high density 55% open area access floor grating panels in the cold aisles. I see that Doug seems to endorse the concept in Case #4 of the white paper. I look forward to hearing from Doug. Thank you.
Doug Garday
in response to: Ralph Sieja
Hi Ralph
I'd be happy to discuss the 'air-cooled..." whitepaper with you. I do endorse using different percentage of free-area floor diffusers in data centers based upon different factors such and RMF height and amount of airflow needed for the IT thermal load. I've noticed from airflow modeling DCs, there is a balancing act to select the optimum RMF parameters to achieve what we feel is the best fit for that type of DC.
Doug
......crickets......crickets.....