FREE COOLING CHILLER CONTRIBUTES TO EU DATA CENTRE ENERGY EFFICIENCY

A range of awarding winning R-410A precision data centre chillers has been extended to provide economies of scale for large data centre operators. When combined with a free cooling chiller, it can deliver up to 98% free cooling for most European data centre hubs. The systems offer cutting edge technology to quietly and precisely control room temperature, humidity and air quality to ensure efficient, reliable, 24/7 operation of sensitive systems in data centres and other critical applications.

Energy use for data centres is one of the themes of the European Commission Communication ‘Shaping Europe’s digital future’ (19.2.2020 COM(2020) 67 final). ‘Yet it is also clear that the ICT sector also needs to undergo its own green transformation. The environmental footprint of the sector is significant, estimated at 5-9% of the world’s total electricity use and more than 2% of all emissions. Data centres and telecommunications will need to become more energy efficient, reuse waste energy, and use more renewable energy sources. They can and should become climate neutral by 2030.’

Explanatory note: Free Cooling uses low external air temperatures to chill water and generate energy savings. It can take effect when the difference between the outside supply and return temperatures is as little as 1°C and reduces the need for mechanical cooling, Concurrent free-cooling maximizes the part-load efficiencies when mechanical refrigeration compressors are operating. The use of temperature sensors and sequencer controls allows for cooling to be staged, ensuring a smooth transition from mechanical cooling to air free cooling.
Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is the ratio of total amount of energy used by a computer data center facility to the energy delivered to computing equipment and describes how efficiently a computer data center uses energy; specifically, how much energy is used by the computing equipment (in contrast to cooling and other overhead). An ideal PUE is 1.0. Free cooling opportunities can make a significant saving on energy use generating PUEs of 1.1 or below.

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Sources: ACR Journal and manufacturer’s information