How can you optimize data center cooling for less cost?

1 Measure and monitor

The first step to optimize data center cooling is to measure and monitor the temperature, humidity, airflow, and power consumption of the data center. These metrics can help you identify hot spots, inefficiencies, and anomalies in the cooling system. You can use sensors, meters, and software tools to collect and analyze the data. By measuring and monitoring, you can establish a baseline, set goals, and track progress for your cooling optimization efforts.

3 Optimize the airflow

Optimizing the airflow in the data center is essential for efficient cooling and distribution. Best practices for this include creating hot and cold aisles to separate the hot air from server exhausts and the cold air from cooling units, sealing gaps, cracks, and openings in the floor, ceiling, walls, and racks to prevent air leakage and mixing, using blanking panels, curtains, doors, or partitions to block unused spaces and direct the airflow, and installing variable speed fans which can adjust fan speed according to cooling demand and save energy.

4 Implement free cooling

Free cooling is a technique that uses external or ambient air, water, or ground to cool the data center instead of mechanical refrigeration. This method of cooling can significantly reduce cooling costs and energy consumption, especially in areas with mild or cold climates. You can implement free cooling with air-side economizers that draw outside air when the temperature is lower than the set point, water-side economizers that use a heat exchanger to transfer heat, and geothermal cooling that utilizes a ground loop system to exchange heat with the earth.

5 Upgrade or replace equipment

The last tip to optimize data center cooling is to upgrade or replace outdated, inefficient, or incompatible equipment. This could include servers, storage, and network devices with higher performance models that have lower power consumption and better thermal management. Cooling units can be replaced with more efficient and modular models with variable capacity, smart controls, and advanced features. Additionally, power distribution units should be swapped for models with higher efficiency, lower heat generation, and better monitoring. Ultimately, upgrading or replacing equipment can improve cooling effectiveness, reduce the cooling load, and lower maintenance costs.