Getting the Next Gain

With a contained data center, there is a new ability to tightly control environmental conditions and cooling resources. With these controls, a second set of efficiency gains can be captured. The gains are achieved through better and continuous matching of the cooling supply to the ever changing heat conditions. Polargy partners with Monitoring & Control solution providers that offer real-time temperature and pressure monitoring and dynamic controlling of the airflow and supply temperature.

Data Center Monitoring

With containment the necessity for more comprehensive monitoring increases. Today, there are new, low cost wireless monitoring and visualization solutions designed specifically for large and global data centers. The solution uses a network of wireless sensors to collect temperature, pressure, and humidity data throughout the data center. This data is processed and displayed to data center operators who use it to visualize air mixing, see trends, and identify hot spots. In addition, high-sensitivity sub-floor pressure sensors identify poor flow areas and floor leaks.

A wireless sensor network with visualization mapping (sample maps shown below), gives data center operators a real-time tool that lets them see temperature, humidity, and pressure conditions in their data center, and take corrective action with confidence. Environmental visualization maps highlight specific conditions using 3D real-time data at multiple levels of the data center, and provide a visual display of thermal airflow, pressure differential, and humidity.

 

Tuning and Adaptive Control for Energy Management

After containment and after tuning the cooling system by shutting off CRAC units and or changing set points, dynamically controlling the cooling system becomes the next avenue for efficiency gains. The real-time temperature data from the monitoring system is used to dynamically control cooling resources to match capacity to demand in real-time. In data centers with hot/cold aisle containment this adaptive control capability allows data center operators to more tightly control their resources to keep airflow in balance, minimize over and under cooling, and importantly, save energy. Below are the temperature maps from a live data center showing the progressive improvements made first with containment, and then, with adaptive control.