A Brief Discussion on Improving Data Center Cooling Efficiency

Data center energy saving and emission reduction should start from two aspects: First, reduce the demand of data center IT equipment for electricity, reduce its energy consumption and heat generation; second, improve the efficiency of power supply and cooling systems, and reduce unnecessary waste. Today, let's discuss the energy saving of data center cooling systems.
The unit area energy consumption of data center computer rooms has rapidly increased from 400-500W/m2 ten years ago to 800-1000W/m2 at present, and it is still showing an upward trend. Especially at present, the improvement of the integration degree of high-density IDC computer room equipment has greatly increased the power of a single rack. The power of a desktop server rack is 1.5kW, the power of a modular server rack is about 10kW, and the power of the latest blade server rack is as high as 30kW. High power consumption inevitably leads to high heat generation, so the demand for air conditioning in IDC computer rooms has also increased significantly.
1. For the power consumption of IT equipment in data center computer rooms and the heat dissipation requirements of computer rooms, corresponding computer room cooling system solutions and computer room heat dissipation schemes should be adopted:
1) When the power consumption of the computer room rack is 3-6kW, it is recommended to adopt air-cooled or water-cooled air conditioning systems, and plan and construct the computer room airflow organization with face-to-face and back-to-back cold and hot aisle separation. Under the condition that the local climate permits, the water-cooled air conditioning system and natural wind cooling scheme with higher energy efficiency can be considered. When a heat island is generated locally in the computer room, a variable air volume air-supply floor with airflow guidance can be used to enhance the local heat dissipation of the heat island area in the computer room.
2) When the power consumption of the computer room rack is 8-15kW, it is recommended to plan and construct the closed cold aisle airflow organization, and adopt air-cooled or water-cooled air conditioning systems. When a heat island is generated locally in the computer room, EC fans and air-supply floors can be used to enhance the local heat dissipation of the heat island area in the computer room; when a high-power heat island is generated locally in the computer room, row-level air conditioners can be used to enclose the local area for internal enhancement and rapid heat dissipation.
3) When the power consumption of the computer room rack is 15-25kW, it is recommended to use row-level air conditioners in the computer room, and enclose the cabinets to enhance the local heat dissipation of the heat island area in the computer room. If conditions permit, cold plate cabinets can be used, and the hot air inside the cabinet and the cooling water can be used for heat exchange cooling technology inside the cabinet.
4) When the power of the computer room is greater than 25kW, consider more efficient heat dissipation and cooling technology, adopt liquid cooling technology, and high-density server high-quality cooling system.
From the above schemes, we can see that for traditional low-power cabinets, air-cooled air conditioning cooling technology can meet its operating conditions. When the power is greater than 10kW, closed channels and row-level air conditioning cooling should be adopted. When the power is greater than 15kW, cold plate cooling technology should be adopted to meet the operating needs of the cabinet. When the power is greater than 25kW, consider more efficient immersion liquid cooling technology.
The development trend of cloud data centers is large-scale and high-density computer rooms. Traditional air conditioning cooling methods will be difficult to meet the future operating requirements of data centers. For higher efficiency and energy saving, let's compare the above liquid cooling technology route and the traditional technology performance PUE.
2. Comparison of energy consumption of different cooling technologies Compared with traditional air cooling, cold plate, and immersion liquid cooling, without considering changes in external environmental factors, the comparison of the three technologies is as follows:

    

Summary: Analyzing the operating conditions of the three technologies, the cooling energy consumption of the cooling system is continuously reduced. Cold plate can effectively and significantly reduce energy consumption for traditional air cooling technology, and immersion liquid cooling can further save energy and reduce consumption, and PUE can reach 1.09. With the increasingly strict control of energy saving indicators for data centers in China, PUE has a further downward trend. It can be seen that immersion liquid cooling has broad prospects in energy saving applications in high-power and large-scale data centers. With the continuous development of technology, data center cooling systems will become more efficient and energy-saving.

Source: Internet Data Center Operation and Maintenance Management

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