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Reducing Information Technologies ever-increasing carbon footprint
1. reducing information
Technology's ever-
increasing carbon
footprint
Tom Raftery
Blog: cix.ie / tomrafteryit.net
Podcast: www.podleaders.com
Email: tom@tomrafteryit.net
2. CIX
• Cork Internet eXchange - CIX
• First professional data centre outside
Dublin
• Opening Oct ’07
• Not a sales pitch (unless your based in
Cork!!!)
8. Lingo
• Watts = Voltage x Amps
• 1000 Watts for 1 hour = 1kWh
• 1U = 1 rack unit = 44.45 mm (1.75 in) high
• 1U servers -> 1A = 220W or .22kW
• Blade Servers/SAN = 500W per 1 U
• A large server might take 1kW
• 40U rack could use 20kW of power
11. Why?
• DC running costs
• Staffing - reasonable controllable
• Connectivity - decreasing
• Energy - increasing
12. Increasing Energy
requirements
• Rack of equipment typically used
• 1.5 kW 7 years ago
• 4.5 kW 4 years ago and
• 15 kW in 2006!
• SL Avatar consumes 1.75 kWh p.a.!
13. Watts per $1000 server
spend
• Price to fill a rack has gone down
• Power consumption has gone up
• => Increasing Watts per $1000 of
server spend
16. Background
• Data Centres:
• Consume a lot of electricity
• At roughly a constant rate
• Have generating capacity at 2x
requirements
• Connected to grid through high
voltage substations
17. Background
• Electricity Supply:
• Cannot be stored
• Seasonal & diurnal demands
• ESB offers Max Demand (MD)
discounts
• Wind generates 0-30% of demand
but is highly unstable
18. The Strategy
• Create a Data Centre power grid
• Powered by diesel generators burning
PPO
• Grid generates power for ESB by day
and pulls surplus power from ESB by
night
• Give control of grid to ESB
• ESB can now buy more wind power
23. Innovations
• Utilise free cooling
• Dynamically maximise chilled water
temperature
• Eliminate water mixing
• Minimise humidification
• Eliminate air mixing
• Utilise low resistance, slow speed air
paths
24. Free Cooling
• Mean temp in Cork is 10.5˚C
• Optimum inlet temp for servers is
21˚C
• Exhaust air from servers is 30˚C to
40˚C
• Use ambient temp to cool the warm
air and return water
25. Maximise Chilled Water
Temp
• Chillers have a fixed set point
• CIX developed dynamic chiller
control system
• Maximises temp of chilled water
• Reduces energy required to chill it
26. Eliminate Water Mixing
• Fixed chiller set-point
• If CRAHs get overly cold water
• => mix with warm water -
extremely wasteful
• Dynamic set point eliminates water
mixing
27. Minimise Humidification
• Low temperature water CRAHs =>
condensation
• reduces the relative humidity
• Steam (energy and cooling
implications) required to humidify
• Dynamic chiller set point => less
condensation
29. Eliminate Air mixing
• Mixing hot and cold air - v wasteful
• Most DCs - hot aisle/cold aisle
separation
• CIX - cold aisle containment - most
energy efficient rack layout
30. Low Resistance, Slow
Speed Air
• Large unobstructed under-floor
cavities
• Large overhead spaces for return air
flows
• Fans require less energy to move air
• Also, using thyristor controlled
direct drive fans to reduce belt
resistance losses
31. Server Supplied Heating
• Dimplex heat exchange unit
• Servers heat the CIX offices
• Servers heat water for CIX
32. Power
• 10kv low impedence looped
connection to the national grid
• Using GE Super ECO UPS’s
offering >98% efficiency
33. Power
Normal mode
Bypass
Static bypass
supply
•Normal mode
• The output voltage is newly generated, Rectifier Inverter
independently from the input voltage AC Load
DC
Rectifie
Heat losses are present in rectifier and
• r AC
DC
inverter
supply
Battery bank
•Super Eco Mode
• Load is supplied via the bypass Super Eco Mode
• UPS rectifier keeps the battery charged
Bypass
• UPS inverter switched o Static bypass
supply
(no heat losses)
Rectifier Inverter Transf.
AC Load
DC
Rectifie
r AC
DC
supply
Battery bank
35. End Result
Standard DC CIX
33% 12%
Chiller
3% 1%
Humidifier
9% 4%
CRAC
30% 80%
IT Equipment
5% 0.01%
PDU
18% 2%
UPS
1% 1%
Lighting
1% 1%
Switch Gear
36. Conclusion
• Carbon neutrality
• many stakeholders
• Political will
• time to roll out
• Extreme energy efficiency
• Being built-in!
37. References
• Uptime Institute - www.upsite.com
• APC - www.apc.com
• GE - www.ge.com
• CIX Energy Efficiency White Paper - www.cix.ie/air-
conditioning-efficiency-at-the-cix-data-centre
• Second Life Avatar Power consumption -
www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/
avatars_consume.php
38. Thanks
Tom Raftery
Blog: www.tomrafteryit.net
Podcast: www.podleaders.com
Email: tom@tomrafteryit.net