The energy company ENGIE helps other companies save energy while operating their buildings. To do this, they analyse the current situation in detail, calculate the saving potential, and develop the relevant measures. This was also the case for a large colocation centre operator in the USA. Cooling the server racks efficiently was a particularly great challenge, as different active and passive measures needed to be coordinated together.
In addition to the full conversion to LED lights, as well as passive measures such as implementing cold aisles, the main solution of active server cooling using highly efficient EC fans was significant for energy savings. For example, 324 so-called active floor panels with fan trays were mounted in the server rooms. These guide the cold air from the underfloor to the hotspots in a precise manner, while fans in other areas can be shut down. Even the fans in the evaporators on the roof were replaced with a total of 224 energy-efficient GreenTech EC fans by ebm-papst. An AxiTop diffuser was also mounted to the top of every fan, which reduces energy consumption by up to 27% again.
All measures combined led to a noticeable increase in efficiency. The New Jersey data centre alone now saves 7.3 million kilowatt hours a year in energy, meaning that the conversion measures have paid for themselves in just two years.
During the last five years, operators have been thinking more and more about the efficiency of their data centres. After all, this helps to save cash which can then be invested in other places.
Catalogue EC axial fans – HyBlade® (Edition 01.09.2015) [PDF] 121.68MB
Tight spaces, noise-sensitive surroundings, strict efficiency standards – our customers’ challenges are varied and not always straightforward. Nevertheless, our engineers will find the solution, as these examples show …
