An A/C Case Study: Greening the Cork Internet Exchange

Tom Raftery is a social media rock star and all-round good egg. This blog provides a really nice in-depth look at the cooling strategies used by the Cork Internet Exchange, a project he has been closely involved in. Normally GreenMonk echews hardcore green data center stuff, but this one caught my eye because it was driven by CIX, rather than by a big vendor agenda. There is plenty of good information and data in there if you’re thinking about cooling strategies. Air-conditioning is one of the major costs in a data center yet its sometimes ignored in favour of trying to make servers cooler. Get the air-con right though and you can cut costs and carbon too.

Its also a great grassroots story because it takes account of the fact its often fecking cold in Ireland. Why spend money on cooling if its cold outside? The basic strategy:

1. Utilise free cooling.
2. Maximise chilled water temperature.
3. Eliminate water mixing.
4. Eliminate air mixing.
5. Utilise low resistance slow speed air paths.
6. Minimise humidification.

More from Dennis here.

Note to Tom – please sort out your diagrams though, mate, the links are 404ing.