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8

What About Chillers,

Cooling Tower Fans, and

All That Cooling

Equipment Usually

Ignored by IT?

“The power and cooling infrastructure that supports IT
equipment in data centers uses significant energy,
accounting for 50 percent of the total consumption of
ptg
data centers.”
—EPA Report to Congress on Server and Data Center
Energy Efficiency, 2007

We know that the cooling of data centers via chillers, cooling tower fans,
and such has a significant impact on overall data center energy use and our
goal for green IT at data centers. About half of the energy used by data cen-
ters goes to cooling and other data center support systems. This chapter looks
at methods to improve the energy efficiency of the chillers, cooling tower
fans, and other cooling equipment that contribute to 50 percent of the total
data center energy consumed.
In general, this chapter focuses on the energy required for data centers
other than for IT systems. That remaining energy amounts to about 50 per-
cent and consists of the energy consumed by essential support systems, such
as power, cooling, and lighting. Next to technology systems, the cooling sys-
tem consumes the most energy in the data center, accounting for approxi-
mately 37 percent of data center electricity use. Demands on cooling systems
have increased substantially in recent years as server densities have risen to
unprecedented levels. This change has not only created the need for increased

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