With data center power consumption costs rising, Intel was looking for a way to support the growth in computing capacity in a way that would minimize costs. To challenge industry assumptions regarding data center cooling, Intel IT conducted this proof of concept test that used an air economizer to cool production servers with 100 percent outside air at temperatures of up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Read about the results of this 10 month study.
aireconomizer_final
254KB, PDF
A wondeful effort
Don and Intel DC Team,
Congrats on your great success with the air side economizer PoC. Aside from it providing potential great cost reduction in DC OPs , you have more importantly shown another way for us all to reduce our carbon footprint and make for a more “green ” enviroment
great job!!
Very interesting results. I wonder if with improved filtering (to reduce the dust buildup) if you would get better “buy in” while not significantly increasing costs.
Great results with the PoC and viability of using air side economizers in dry places.
The graph only shows Jan-May variations in Temperature & humidity, while this study was done over 10 months. Wondering if consistent high temps in June/July/August reveal any trends!
Thanks for sharing the results, great work!!
[...] Intel had their idea for cooling the data center directly with outside air. [...]