Designing a More Energy Efficient Data Center

By Marcus Hassen

The average data center can be many times more energy intensive than an office building, according to a recent EPA study.

In response, EPA and the Department of Energy (DOE) have launched a joint national data center energy efficiency information program, which includes Save Energy Now, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) and Energy Star. EPA also is working with end users to identify ways energy efficiency can better be measured, documented and applied in data centers.

Against this backdrop, data center operators are gaining an appreciation of sustainable design and high-performance buildings, and have successfully applied these concepts to their facilities. This has translated into a new generation of critical facilities that is more environmentally sound, more energy efficient and more cost-effective than before. These new facilities incorporate the best features of sustainability to reduce energy consumption without sacrificing reliability.

As with commercial building projects, creating sustainable data centers requires integrating ideas and objectives for building systems and sharing a vision with all of the project's stakeholders from day one. Success in achieving sustainable goals is driven by sensible decisions made early in facility programming, when the sizing of HVAC equipment, positioning of data center equipment, location and sizing of air openings and orchestration of large-scale airflow patterns are the most flexible. While some strategies may drive a higher first cost, they will lower operating cost over the facility's lifetime if they are properly applied. The following are a sampling of energy efficient design practices that should be explored in new data centers.

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