By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-07-27 23:50:17 | Word Count: 664
Data center design can have a huge impact on data center humidity and energy use. Data centers can use 200 times more power than conventional offices. With such considerable power usage comes higher temperatures and data center humidity levels than would be found in other spaces. High data center humidity levels can threaten the performance of critical systems and lead to the inefficient use of energy.
Data Center Design
[ advertisement ]
Data center design, proper air conditioning and data center monitoring are all essential to energy efficiency. However, energy efficiency in data center design is too often over looked. The power needs of business critical servers and systems often trump efficiency. Not enough time is spent on first cost versus life-cycle-cost issues. Data center designs are often just modified versions of conventional office designs developed without regard for the unique energy requirements of server rooms. A lack of data center humidity monitoring can leave critical systems vulnerable to failure in an emergency. An experienced HVAC company can help you design a data center monitoring system that will protect your equipment and avoid costly downtime.
Data Center Monitoring
Energy benchmarking and ongoing data center monitoring can help determine the efficiency of your current data center design. It can also help you to determine the most effective new strategies to implement. As new techniques are put in place, data center monitoring will enable you to compare the performance of the new strategies with your current data center design. The benefits of data center monitoring are:
• It can help you to optimize your energy efficiency
• It can reduce data center humidity
• It can lengthen the life of your current data center
• It can reduce your carbon footprint
Continuous energy-usage management can only be effective if appropriate metering systems are in place. A good HVAC team will establish energy-efficiency benchmarking goals, based on the right metrics, to evaluate which measured values are needed to determine the efficiency of the data center design. Data center monitoring and energy benchmarking looks at things like:
• Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) System Effectiveness
• Airflow Efficiency
• Cooling System Efficiency
Contact a qualified HVAC team who understands the unique issues data center humidity presents and can begin a data center monitoring program that will lengthen the life of your valuable equipment.
*Information on data center humidity, data center design and data center monitoring provided by U.S. Department of Energy.
