Intel Shows Data Centers Can Get By (Mostly) With Little AC 287
Ted Samson IW writes "InfoWorld reports on an experiment in air economization, aka 'free cooling,' conducted by Intel. For 10 months, the chipmaker had 500 production servers, working at 90 percent utilization, cooled almost exclusively by outside air at a facility in New Mexico. Only when the temperature exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit did they crank on some artificial air conditioning. Intel did very little to address air-born contaminants and dust, and nothing at all to deal with fluctuating humidity. The result: a slightly higher failure rate — around 0.6 percent more — among the air-cooled servers compared to those in the company's main datacenter — and a potential savings of $2.87 million per year in a 10MW datacenter using free cooling over traditional cooling."
Chimney effects (Score:5, Interesting)
I do wonder how things could be improved with a decently sized stack... the higher an exit chimney, the more draw you'll get from the temperature differential. If your computer rooms are near the base of a decent sized office building, and you have a 20 story stack, I'd expect you could get away without any intake or exhaust fans.
Anyone here that can confirm or deny this?
Re:How about reducing the need for AC POWER as wel (Score:5, Interesting)
I asked the president of an engineering firm that I work for about this. He ships racks of boxes, each holding DSP boards on backplanes, each backplane has it's own PSU.
When I asked him why he doesn't just have one or two -big- power supplies in the unit, he said that he tried that, but the cost of the non-standard PSU was higher than all the ATX PSUs put together, and then some, and replacing the units when they eventually fail would be tricky, as opposed to just stocking more ATX PSUs.
I agree that it's a good idea, but until there's enough volume of large multi-output PSUs shipping, the cost of manufacture makes the product unworkable (unless you think big-picture and want to spend more up front for power savings over the whole unit's life).
Generally, the people who use the hardware aren't the ones building it, and buyers usually go for the lowest bid.
Only ten months? (Score:4, Interesting)
The standard replacement cycle is about three years, so until they try that, this doesn't mean a lot. Also, what was the density of the data center? I still love the story of a datacenter with some DSLAMs that cooled left to right which were put next to each other in about 12 racks and the rightmost one caught fire once a week...
Also, I don't know the climate there, but in the regular climate here where it goes between -10 and +35 celsius (that's between 14 and 95 fahrenheit) and there's a good dose of humidity, the failure rate might be somewhat bigger...
Re:Makes Sense (Score:5, Interesting)
I set up a datacenter at my old job in Alberta, and that's exactly what we did.
We ran exhaust ducting to the offices, and tied intake into the building's cold-air return. From September to May fans moved colder air into the data room and hot air into the office space. June to August we ran the AC, and shut off the "winter lines" with dampers.
It worked extremely well.
combine this with vortex effects (Score:3, Interesting)
Add some of the Dyson vacuum inspired vortex thingy's to the intake to help filter out the dust and you wouldn't have to waste as much money on filters either.
Or what if you run the incoming air through a swamp cooler? wouldn't the running water cut down on the incoming dust significantly?
Simpler Tools (Score:5, Interesting)
Part of the problem is people are looking for very complicated solutions for very simple problems.
In retrofitting a standalone building, all you really need to do is reduce the amount of heat a building gains from the sun by improving it's R value and use sensible ducting to draw air through the building. I've seen some super energy efficient designs where each floor is vented, so that the building is itself a chimney, with cool air coming from vents from covered areas near the base, and enough size provided at the top to pull enough from the bottom, which is also easily aided by fans.
In building an entirely new datacenter, it would make sense to bury the server rooms, and cover the concrete structure with earth and solar panels. Combined with a flywheel load balancer, you could have an "off the grid" datacenter with the grid for backup. During the daylight hours, especially in the south, the panels can provide a good deal of the A/C and power necessary. At night the flywheel can continue powering the data center for a while, and turn fans without compressors to cool the equipment with night air.
This can all be done with existing technology. The trick is to convince people that green investment will lead to a return in the long run. I haven't personally looked at average rate increases in electricity, but the difference between efficient and additional construction expenses versus long term energy price fluctuations probably looks very good.
Re:Humidity (Score:5, Interesting)
Humidity only really matters for two reason - If too low, you get a lot of static buildup, and if too high, you get condensation.
Condensation only tends to happen on objects cooler than ambient, which doesn't really apply to running servers. Static matters a lot more, but you can raise humidity a lot cheaper than you can lower it, so, not as much of an issue there.
And as a bonus, more humid air can carry away more heat than the same volume of less humid air.
Antarctica (Score:5, Interesting)
heavy equipment filters (Score:1, Interesting)
Heavy equipment uses something like that, (helps when wherever you are working it gets real dusty...) the intake air is spun-via a belt sometimes or just the force of the vacuum with a finned filter canister- and all the larger chunks in the air get flung to the outside away from the particulate filter itself. It works pretty good, when you open one up, the outside cannister, you can see all the dirt and stuff that the filter didn't even have to filter, you just dump them out once in awhile. Sort of hard to describe, you might be able to find a picture/schematic on the internets if you are really interested how it works. It is much better than the passive stuff they have on passenger cars.
Re:48 vdc (Score:3, Interesting)
My brother works for the Campus-level Computing and Information Services for Texas A&M University. They have been going away from AC power for a while now. They apparently have almost no heat issues anymore. While the AC server room in my lab (we run 70 servers) with a dedicated A/C system is running at 74 degrees now with the A/C running constantly at full blast.
Re:How about reducing the need for AC POWER as wel (Score:1, Interesting)
I'd like to see how long term humidity would work out for that type of tech. At my job we're seeing high failures from water based flux, our engineers loath the crap but we oursource board making and it's 'cheaper'. We can use no-clean for some of our stuff but we've also had problems with no-clean reacting to airborne gasses and chemicals. ASIG
Re:48 vdc (Score:3, Interesting)
Then your A/C is too small, or the room is not energy efficient ('tho I suspect the rest of the office is cooler.) I had the same issues in our previous office when the building A/C was cut off in the evenings and on weekends -- it's hard to move all that heat with cheap consumer A/C units, and impossible if you don't have a heat exchanger outside the building. (dumping hot air into the plenum only works as long as the building HVAC is on.) The current office has a dedicated 5ton Liebert Challenger 3000 and it keeps the room perfectly stable running at 50%.
Re:Simpler Tools (Score:1, Interesting)
What about fire regulations? Buildings are intentionally designed to keep fire from spreading from floor to floor, hence the compartmentalization.
Re:How about reducing the need for AC POWER as wel (Score:4, Interesting)
4 words "Single point of failure"
You mean like the power circuit that you are already connected to? That single point of failure has long ago been handled. Where the costs can be justified, run more than one power circuit, backup generators and UPS, etc. That's no different.
I'm personally more interested in the wasteful DC to AC and back conversion when considering small scale solar. Why in the world is the default option to run a wasteful inverter just to plug an AC to DC converter in to that? Almost everything I looked at for portable solar to power a laptop or netbook worked like that. A lot of netbooks could be run on a 10W solar panel with battery backup, or more reliably of course with more solar capacity.
Re:Simpler Tools (Score:1, Interesting)
Unless you were interested in avoiding flooding.
Never play in the USA (Score:4, Interesting)
EVERYTHING _M_U_S_T_ be air-conditioned at all times. From what we heard from France during their last heat wave a few years ago, air-conditioning isn't universal in the First World. Therefore, it must sound strange that air-conditioning is a inviolate moral imperative in all offices in the US. My wife has a sweater with her at work at all times even if it is July or August. Same for me. 100% wool. When it is 95 outside and 68 inside, I want nothing more than to hibernate -- like seriously drift off to sleep. I've worn gloves with the fingers cut out in July at my keyboard. I've sneaked in an incandescent lamp to warm my hands (please, sir, just a lump of coal?). I've gotten on my chair and stuffed paper towels in air ducts.
If management can't see that they are air-conditioning some of their people into productivity loss, not to mention pain, how much more likely are they to reduce air-conditioning on their precious equipment? No, doesn't matter whether one experiment shows it would save big money. The person who suggests reducing air-conditioning in the U.S. will be about as popular at his business as if he had suggested commissioning a portrait of Karl Marx on the lunch room wall. This just isn't a technical issue.
Re:How about reducing the need for AC POWER as wel (Score:5, Interesting)
Aluminum wiring is a FIRE hazard and was BANNED in all new
houses in the US due to it.
You might be able to get away with it outdoors, but it is
most likely a bad idea based on the indoor results.
http://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?s=7d306106c574b8acd101e052ab90be42&p=615606&postcount=6 [physicsforums.com]
http://books.google.com/books?id=2edigWaeGPUC&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=aluminum+wiring+ban&source=web&ots=l0eE26iMkt&sig=rVIgBVl0gXGlJicEHA_qW8s4zY0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result [google.com]
Alot of areas you cannot even get insurance for the building
with aluminum wiring in it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_wiring#Hazard_insurance [wikipedia.org]
Re:How about reducing the need for AC POWER as wel (Score:1, Interesting)