August 20th, 2009
Watch these metrics. The Planet touts new water-cooled chiller from Turbine Air.
I’m always looking for examples of things that businesses are doing to make their data centers more energy-efficient. This one comes from The Planet, an IT hosting company from Texas.
When it built out a new 106,000-square-foot data center in Plano (its eighth), The Planet opted for water-cooled chillers in the form of a new modular cooling system from Turbine Air Systems. After all, it is sort of tough to opt for airside economization in most places in Texas. But, The Planet had the benefit of being able to start from scratch, so it could pick the cooling approach it wanted.
Jeff Lowenberg, vice president of facilities for The Planet, says the Turbine Air Systems technology contains all the individual components needed for a cooling system. “In a normal buildout, there are any number of components that might work together, then again, they may not,” he says. The modular units are easy to put into place when they’re needed. The Planet will be dividing the data center into 12,000-square-foot pods as new clients are signed.
Lowenberg’s team has designed the hot aisles to include vented ceiling tiles, so that hot air is pulled out. The cold aisles have been cleared of all obstruction (such as cabling and so forth), so that air can circulate more freely.
All the pumps used in the data center are all variable speed, so that they can work as much as necessary and no more. “The savings for this motors may seem small in comparison to the chiller savings, but it all adds up,” Lowenberg says.
Taken altogether, Lowenberg says The Planet is striving for a power usage effectiveness rating of 1.3 to 1.4, compared with 1.6 or 1.7 for some of its other facilities. He believes the return on investment for the cooling system will come at the 30-month mark.
Here’s some more information about the data center in question.
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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