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Building an Energy Efficient Datacenter?
asc4 asks: "The company I work for is a webhosting and colocation company. As our power utilization grows, we have begun searching for ways to make our datacenter more efficient. The biggest hit from the utility company comes in the peak usage charge, which penalizes (rather severely) for the highest sustained burst of usage during a billing period. Due to the nature of the colocation business, we can't control how much or when client devices use power, so I'm wondering: is there's something we can do at the datacenter level to help smooth out our power consumption, over the course of a given period of time?"
"In these days of hybrid cars, Energy Star devices, and in general more eco-friendly power consumption, it seems like there must be some products out there that can help make datacenters more efficient, as well. Could fuel cell technology be something to look into? Would flywheels or capacitors help? How about using more efficient AC units than what are available from the big names? What are others doing to reduce peak power consumption in high-drain datacenter environments?"
During off-peak time, pump water uphill to a holding reservoir - a big swimming pool on the roof might do.
:)
Heat the water with the waste heat from the cooling units.
Sell access for swimming - nice warm water (well, here in Canada we like it warm
During peak hours, drain the pool back via generators to make electricity. (make sure you tell people first)
Use warm water to cool more - generate steam.
Run steam through turbines to generate electricity.
Use electricity to pump more water to pool on roof
continue as needed
Been there, done that, paid for the T-shirt
and didn't get it
I take it you have quite a server farm.
Intel sells a lot of crap, so take some of it and use a methane generator to produce power.
The trick is to use the heat from computers to drive a turbine that generates power. Then use that power to run the air conditioners.
I smell a Nobel Prize in Physics here.
I smell something alright ;)
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Seriously. Try killing the flourescents and not allowing "lighted" maintenance during certain peak times.
On the other hand, that might be a dumb idea.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
I'm thinking like solar or wind assist
Great! I bet my boss is gonna love hearing how the server is down because it is cloudy or there just isn't enough wind.