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DC Power Saves 15% Energy and Cost @ Data Center

Krishna Dagli writes "Engineers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and about 20 technology vendors this month will wrap up a demonstration that they said shows DC power distribution in the data center can save up to 15 percent or more on energy consumption and cost. The proof-of-concept program, set up at Sun Microsystems' Newark, Calif., facility, offered a side-by-side comparison of a traditional AC power system and a 380-volt DC distribution system, running on both Intel-based servers and Sun systems."

18 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. Bye bye Tesla by krell · · Score: 3, Funny

    Read Stephen King's "Tommyknockers". You can do a lot of things if you go DC-only!

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  2. Re:Safety by drgonzo59 · · Score: 4, Funny

    But we wouldn't know...As soon as one dies he gets shredded and a replacement takes his place. Thousands of IT workers die everyday and most people don't even know it.

  3. Re:Old time rivals at it again... by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Funny

    While it has been rumored that Mr. Nikola Tesla is spinning in his grave

    At 60 revolutions per second.

  4. Re:Safety by cswiger2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

    220VAC can be fatal if you manage to ground yourself in a fashion that causes the current to pass through your chest, but it's uncommon and good practice working with live circuits means you try to avoid the situation. In particular, people working on the innards of CRT tubes are advised to keep one hand in their pocket when near the flyback transformer and HVAC power circuitry driving the vacuum tube to avoid a short from one hand -> chest -> other hand.

    Getting one hand shocked at 220VAC is not pleasant, but it's not especially painful either...

    --
    "The human race's favorite method for being in control of the facts is to ignore them." -Celia Green
  5. Re:Safety by andrewman327 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Quiet you, and back to the data mines!

    --
    Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
  6. Re:Safety by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2, Funny
    "Fun hu?" ???

    You claim to know the "Fun Hu" technique? Teach it to me immediately, or I will kill your master just as I killed his other students.!

  7. Re:Edison by Rocketship+Underpant · · Score: 1, Funny

    I don't know, I heard about a pretty cool chair he invented!

    --
    He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
  8. Same data, different conclusion by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I see their results, but I come to a different conclusion.

    My headline would read "DC Power Results in 15% Increase in Equipment in Data Centers"

  9. Re:Safety by MrFrothy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Call me crazy, but I always go with "Don't touch it" if I'm not sure if a line is live or dead

  10. Re:Deadly DC? by ocbwilg · · Score: 3, Funny

    I always thought the opposite was true. Here is a wiki quote that also supports that:

    Just make sure that the article that you are quoting wasn't edited by Stephen Colbert...

  11. Re:Safety by neonfrog · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...CRT('s)...HVAC power circuitry...

    Your monitor has its own AIR CONDITIONER? Awesome....

    --

    I'm thinking about it, therefore I might be.

  12. Oh my god! by freeze128 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Soylent Green is IT people!"

  13. A black wire question. by spineboy · · Score: 2, Funny

    So it's O.K. to pee on the black wire?

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    ..........FULL STOP.
  14. Re:Safety by mikefe · · Score: 2, Funny
    Depending on the voltage present on the conductor, you may even feel the hairs on the back of your hand react to the field produced, i.e., they will 'stand up'.

    And this my friend is why you have more male electricians (who on average have harrier hands) than female. And if the back of your hands don't grow hair anymore, you shouldn't be an electrician anymore.
    --
    There: Something at a specific location.
    Their: Owned by someone.
    Please make sure your english compiles.
  15. Re:Here, here! by x2A · · Score: 3, Funny

    "And since this is in the datacenter, you can train your people not to pee on the red wire"

    We have dedicated and colocated server in various datacenters, so I have a fair amount of experience with them, and so I need to ask you... PLEASE give me an example! An example of a datacenter staffed with people who can be trained not to pee on a red wire, because if they can be trained to do that... hell they might even be able to reboot the right machine from time to time!

    --
    The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
  16. Re:Safety by rbgaynor · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, by that reasoning, shouldn't slashdot users approach an unknown circuit palm first?

    --
    "Good things don't end with eum, they end with mania or teria." - H. Simpson
  17. Re:Here, here! by HereNow · · Score: 2, Funny

    This seems to be the debate with Tesla, with the Intel vs Sun networking issues?

  18. Re:Pedantic-Man to the rescue! by WED+Fan · · Score: 2, Funny

    Have peed on a few electric fences. One I felt. I think there are conditions where when the right things line up, you get a numb pecker.

    --
    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.