Capitalizing on Containment

With a contained data center, there is a new ability to tightly control cooling conditions and save additional energy. With hot and cold air zones isolated server inlet temperatures become more uniform and allow for safely raising set points. Further, containment makes it significantly easier to make real-time cooling adjustments that match the cooling supply to the ever changing heat conditions. These types of ongoing cooling adjustments ensure continuous efficient operations.

Monitoring the Data Center

Real-time environmental information is the necessary component to tightly controlling cooling. Low cost wireless monitoring devices designed specifically for large data centers are easy to deploy and a simple solution for capturing environmental inputs. Typically, the wireless sensors are deployed throughout the data center with an emphasis on monitoring server inlet temperatures since these are the most critical performance points.

In addition to providing the cooling system inputs the monitoring gives data center operators a real-time tool that lets them see environmental changes in their data center, and respond with confidence. Monitoring can extend into the cooling and power equipment as well, capturing performance trends and enabling early corrective actions.

 

Managing Cooling Resources

After containment the cooling system is typically tuned by shutting off gross excess capacity and changing set points. But, in order to sustain those initial savings and capture the less apparent savings, dynamically controlling the cooling system becomes the necessary approach. As data centers are sophisticated systems, the technology to control the cooling systems needs to consider and integrate a variety of variables in real-time. The solution that Polargy recommends provides these smart controls along with increased reliability and information tools needed to make informed decisions.