The ability to save money in a data center or server room is something that may be more straightforward that you think. These are the three top ways that you can make a data center or server room even more energy efficient.
Cut Back Your IT Load
When you are able to save at least one watt of power at server level, it can lead you to saving about three watts in a data center. This is because less power will be consumed while you are supporting your electrical infrastructure and having to cool the hot equipment.
Good strategies for cutting back on the IT load will include virtualization of the server. This helps you to run more than one workload over a singular server as you can consolidate lightly used servers, getting rid of unused servers, focusing on smarter date storage and also buying equipment that is more energy efficient, including Energy Star qualified servers.
Managing Airflow
Proper airflow management is all about being able to deliver the cold air from your fans or air conditioning units to the fronts of servers in the best way possible. This will help you to remove hot exhaust air from the back portion of the servers much more efficiently. Good airflow management strategies will involve orienting your server racks and enclosing them to help reduce the mixing of your cold air supply and the hot exhaust air by way of variable speed fans in your AC units while deploying devices that will direct your cold air wherever it is needed the most.
Control Your Humidity Levels And Temperatures Efficiently
The high temperatures that can come about from either excessively dry or damp conditions can end up harming your fragile data center equipment. Because of this, the temps and the humidity will have to be managed effectively. The data center equipment that is available today is able to tolerate much wider humidity ranges and temperatures than ever before.
It is now more possible than every so save on energy by simply doing less humidification, dehumidification and cooling. To add to that, there are new and very efficient ways that you can humidify your air instead of the old standby known as producing steam. Another great strategy for cutting back on cooling costs will include using economizers, which will take advantage of lower temperatures outside whenever possible, which will help you to avoid having to cool your air mechanically.
No matter what, you need to be able to learn the steps for having a more efficient date center. In just under an hour, you can become very familiar with the most popular ways to save a great deal of energy in your data center or server room. Energy Star has the ability of offer non-technically descriptions of a variety of energy saving strategies, along with a free one-hour webinar that is just right for non-technical, general audiences.
When it is time, you can schedule a data center walk through that will help you to find potential savings. You can then talk about what you find with a specialist that is trained in IT efficiency and a free conference call with an advisor that is vendor neutral from Energy Star.
After you have fully identified an opportunity to save on energy, you can estimate what it will be worth to your organization. Energy Star is able to help with information on costs and all of the benefits. You do have the ability to build a coalition for change, so think about talking with your local utilities as well to see if there are any energy saving measures or cash incentives that you can fully take advantage of.