No, not quite. Immersion cooling has been around for a long time. Most commonly, you might recognize the large fins on utility power transformers. They are cooled by immersion, with the heat radiated by those fins. Its only recently, perhaps the past 15 years, that the concept has been applied to personal computer cooling mainly by hobbyists trying to do something different and cool, but ultimately likely being a little disappointed as other more mainstream technologies gave them their “bleeding edge” computing performance. Even more recently, this concept has started to be applied to data centers. Continue reading Immersion cooling: That’s how I learned Portuguese that one summer, right? (updated)
Category Archives: Financial Imperatives
Got any Smart Ideas?
I just received the check from our major project at the CH2 data center in downtown Chicago. A $544,000 rebate for validating our energy savings is a pretty impressive feat. The projects included VFDs on DX Cracs, modifying the BMS and economizer, installing hot aisle containment, installing lighting occupancy sensors, and upgrading the cooling towers with new fans and new evaporative media. They tell me this is the biggest check they have ever issued and we are doing a big presentation ceremony in a few days to celebrate this projects successes. Big congratulations to the team I worked with that made this all a reality, Dan Fargano, Travis Nelson, and Jason Brick.
Earth Day!! What’s a data center to do?
Happy Earth Day! I just wanted to take some time to acknowledge this occasion and what I think it means to data center operators.
Earth Day started around 1970 and when it gained traction, the idea was to educate and inform while celebrating our planet. Well in that vein, I did some reading today on energy efficiency and conservation. Where else, besides in heavy industry, do we have the opportunities to save millions of kWh a year? Lots of different estimates of energy consumption exist, but roughly 1.5-2% of all energy is spent in data centers in the United States (good luck finding a solid source for that number). And as IT becomes a bigger sector of the economy, so too has the consumption of data centers increased. These old centers give us so many opportunities.
Valuing a Project
Check out some training I put together on valuing a project. I will update and improve it as time goes on, but I have been talking to people about this subject I wanted to have something to point at. Take a quick look and get some insight on project valuation. Critical comments are appreciated.
PUElink - Saving Energy and Maximizing Capacity 