August 3rd, 2009
Lofty aspirations for power efficiency: Power Loft seeks silver certification for new data center
Colocation data center Power Loft began dreaming about greener data centers several years ago, long before it became vogue to do so.
Now, in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard’s Critical Facilities Services, the company has designed a 200,000-square-foot facility in Prince William County, Va., that can deliver between 120 watts and 300 watts per square foot with a PUE ranging from a low of 1.20 to a high of 1.48.
The two-story design accommodates approximately 33 percent more racks than facilities of a similar real estate footprint, and the first tenant was signed for the new facility in mid-July, says Jim Coakley, president and CEO of Power Loft: “HP wasn’t afraid of pushing me to try something different.”
There are several things that make Power Loft’s approach unique and more efficient than others, according to Coakley and executives for HP.
- Its decision to use air handlers rather than CRACs (Computer Room Air Conditioners). The handlers are placed below the raised floor and use airside economizing processes. Power Loft figures that this move alone helped achieve an energy efficiency boost of 25 percent over other data centers, according to Coakley. One reason is that the handlers have fewer moving parts than the CRAC units. Eliminating the CRACs provides Power Loft with about 25 percent more useable floors space, he estimates. There are 8 air handlers used in the Virginia site.
- The choice to use rotary power units. One big plus here is no battery maintenance and continuous conditioning of the power. The downside is that if there is an outage, there is a small wind of time available during which to switch to generator power.
- Power Loft uses DC power technology in the new facility, although Power Loft uses both AC and DC power in its various facilities. While DC power is commonly used in industrial applications, it is less commonly used on data center designs. Power Loft claims that its AC power distribution design offers 61 percent overall efficiency vs. 89 percent overall efficiency for DC options.
The new Power Loft facility in Virginia will be silver certified under the LEED program run by the U.S. Green Buildings Council.
Here’s the original press release detailing the Power Loft project.
Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist in the New York area with more than 20 years experience covering the high-tech industry. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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