The Raritan Blog

ASHRAE: Best Practices for Environmental Monitoring of Humidity and Temperature

Jessica Ciesla
July 18, 2019

Data centers now consume an estimated 1.8 percent of electricity within the United States. As energy consumption has risen, so too have the associated costs. These costs, coupled with the fact that approximately 30 percent of data center servers are either idle or underutilized, have resulted in unnecessary expenses that could have been mitigated with the right environmental monitoring best practices. These best practices include monitoring temperature and humidity in accordance with ASHRAE 90.4. 

What Is ASHRAE 90.4 ? 

In its simplest forms ASHRAE 90.4 is a new standard that is designed to help data centers effectively monitor temperature and humidity levels so that downtime is reduced, and enhanced efficiencies can be introduced. This standard focuses on the use of on-site and off-site renewable energy. It uses both Mechanical Load (MLC) and Electrical Loss (ELC) to better determine the maximum allowable values for climate zones. At its core, ASHRAE 90.4 helps data center managers understand when they are undercooling their machines and operating at detrimental humidity levels, so that power utilization can be enhanced for the entire data center.