Are you over-cooling your Data Center?

James Cerwinski
September 14, 2010

You should consider the following steps if think you are over-cooling your data center or lab — this will likely result in significant energy savings.

1.  Start monitoring — Deploy temperature and humidity sensors according to industry recommendations(the top, middle and bottom of the server inlet side of the rack).  You can conveniently connect sensors to rack PDUs.

2.  Determine if you are over-cooling — Deploy a system to chart your readings to indicate if you are operating within the ASHRAE 2008 recommended range.  In 2008, ASHRAE increased their recommended upper temperature limit to 80.6F.

3.  If you are over-cooling consider gradually increasing your temperature.

4.  Monitor for hot spots — Use a system that will generate events and notifications when non-critical and critical temperature and humidity thresholds are violated.

5.  Be aware of long term trends — Chart maximum and minimum environmental readings for long term trend analysis.

James Cerwinski