Climatization in Data Centers: Best Practices

Cooling in a data center is essential to ensure energy efficiency, protect equipment, and maintain continuous operation

Climate control in a data center is essential for efficient operation, ensuring precise temperature and humidity management. Servers and other critical assets generate a significant amount of heat, and an inadequate cooling system can lead to overloads, failures, overheating, loss of assets and data, and downtime, compromising service continuity and causing financial losses. According to Gartner, data center downtime can cost an average of US$ 5,600 per minute, or R$ 28,000.00, which reinforces the importance of effective climate control. In addition, well-controlled environments extend the lifespan of equipment and improve energy efficiency, reducing operational costs. This article explores technologies and practices that optimize climate control and ensure sustainable and resilient operations.

Considering that cooling can represent a significant share of a data center’s total energy consumption, especially in Brazilian facilities, it’s clear how directly this system impacts operating costs and the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of the infrastructure.

Investing in efficient cooling systems not only ensures equipment safety and continuous operation, but also significantly contributes to the reduction of energy and maintenance costs, resulting in a more economical and environmentally responsible operation.

Why Is Data Center Cooling Vital?

Data centers operate 24/7 and house servers that generate excessive heat. Without air-conditioning systems designed for critical environments, overheating can lead to:

Service interruptions and downtime;

Reduced equipment lifespan;

Increased maintenance and energy costs.

Cooling & Energy Consumption

Cooling is one of the most significant components of energy consumption in a data center. On average, in Brazil, cooling accounts for 40% of a data center’s total energy consumption. This percentage can vary depending on several factors, such as:

1. Type of infrastructure: More modern and efficient data centers may have a lower proportion of energy consumption dedicated to cooling.

2. Local climate: In hotter regions, the demand for cooling increases, raising the percentage of energy consumption.

3. Workload: Data centers with high server density may require more cooling.

Considering these variables, it’s important to conduct a specific analysis of your data center to determine the actual energy consumption related to cooling.

Best Practices for Efficient Data Center Cooling

Efficient cooling is essential to ensure safe and cost-effective data center operations. A well-designed cooling system not only prevents overheating but also reduces operating costs and extends equipment lifespan. Achieving energy efficiency requires an integrated approach that combines optimized energy consumption with the smart use of available resources. Below are the best practices to ensure efficient cooling:

1.

Hot and Cold Aisle Containment

Hot and cold aisle containment is a fundamental technique in data center cooling aimed at increasing energy efficiency and optimizing the cooling of IT equipment. This approach involves installing physical barriers between aisles and strategically positioning racks and air-conditioning units to create an effective separation between cold air and the hot exhaust air. By preventing airflow mixing, thermal containment reduces energy consumption, improves cooling system performance, and contributes to the continuous and reliable operation of the data center.

2.

Use of Intelligent Cooling Systems

Adopting intelligent cooling systems is essential to reduce real-time energy consumption and avoid overcooling. Equipment such as CRACs (Computer Room Air Conditioners) and CRAHs (Computer Room Air Handlers) is recommended because it includes sensors that automatically adjust cooling based on demand. Integrating these units with BMS (Building Management System) platforms enables more efficient management through automated adjustments and continuous monitoring.

3.

Airflow Management

Good airflow management uses structures such as raised floors to help direct cold air to the areas that need it most, and proper sealing of empty spaces by filling gaps in racks and floors with blanking panels to prevent cold air leakage. With well-designed airflow management, air circulation becomes more efficient, reducing waste.

4.

Adopting Free Cooling

Free Cooling is a system that uses outside air in cold or mild climates to supplement mechanical cooling. It can be direct—bringing filtered outdoor air straight into the environment—or indirect, using outdoor air to cool a specific thermal exchange fluid. Free Cooling reduces the need for air-conditioning use, lowering energy and operating costs and positively impacting the environment.

5.

Humidity Control Implementation

High humidity levels inside the systems can trigger serious issues for the data center and its equipment, such as condensation and static electricity. To prevent these problems, it is recommended to use automatic humidifiers and dehumidifiers that maintain ideal humidity levels between 40% and 60%.

6.

Real-Time Monitoring with Sensors

By installing temperature and humidity sensors on racks and at strategic points throughout the data center, real-time monitoring of the entire environment becomes much easier. Continuous tracking allows dynamic adjustments, prevents waste, and contributes to a more efficient cooling system.

7.

Choosing Energy-Efficient Equipment

Desempenho do sistema de refrigeração. CRACs (Computer Room Air Conditioners) e ventiladores com variadores de frequência (VFD) ajustam sua capacidade conforme a demanda, evitando excessos e assegurando uma ventilação eficaz para a operação contínua. Além disso, é essencial monitorar regularmente o PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), a fim de garantir a eficiência do data center.

8.

Preventive Maintenance and Regular Cleaning

Performing regular cleaning of air filters and cooling units may seem like a simple measure, but it’s essential for identifying possible leaks or obstructions that could compromise the performance of the data center’s cooling systems. Preventive maintenance and frequent inspections ensure the system runs cleanly and efficiently, avoiding failures and future damage.

9.

Liquid Cooling and Hybrid Systems

Liquid cooling dissipates the heat generated by equipment through processes that use water or other specialized refrigerant liquids. Hybrid systems, on the other hand, combine both air and liquid cooling models, providing greater efficiency in high-density environments. Both methods offer improved temperature control and heat dissipation and are especially recommended for high-performance servers.

10.

Continuous Analysis and Optimization

This practice involves continuously monitoring efficiency indicators and maintaining an ongoing review of all processes using environmental monitoring software and data analysis dashboards. This allows issues to be identified and corrected before they impact performance or reduce the data center’s efficiency.

11.

Server Usage Optimization

Data duplication is an optimization technique that eliminates duplicate information, storing only a single copy and replacing the rest with references, reducing the required storage space and increasing efficiency. Precisely defining storage capacity is also crucial to avoid waste and ensure efficient use of the data center’s resources. Virtualization complements these practices by allowing several virtual environments to coexist on a single physical server, saving both energy and space. In addition, virtualization simplifies administration and IT operations monitoring, improving overall environment management.

12.

Server Consolidation and Load Balancing

Server consolidation is an efficient strategy to distribute workloads evenly across different machines, avoiding overloads. With optimized demand management, it becomes possible not only to reduce energy consumption but also to extend equipment lifespan, minimizing maintenance and replacement costs.

13.

Idle Consumption Reduction

Servers that remain idle still consume energy even with low utilization. Adjusting configurations to reduce consumption during these periods can significantly improve efficiency. Additionally, adopting temperature and humidity sensors is recommended to monitor performance and consumption in real time, allowing precise adjustments to cooling systems and increasing overall efficiency.

14.

Investment in Efficient Equipment

Choosing energy-efficient hardware is essential to reduce consumption. This includes high-performance, low-power processors, optimized power supplies, and solid-state drives (SSD). Conducting regular energy audits and monitoring the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) are also indispensable practices to continuously assess and improve the data center’s energy efficiency.

By applying these practices, it becomes possible to optimize data center cooling, reduce energy consumption, and ensure stable and efficient operations.

Future Trends in Data Center Cooling

The continuous development of new techniques is essential to address emerging risks, especially since IT updates occur, on average, every one and a half to two and a half years, highlighting the fast pace of change. As discussed, rapid technological evolution requires data centers to remain flexible so they can incorporate new solutions and meet the ever-changing demands of their customers. In this scenario, significant transformations are inevitable in the coming years, reinforcing the importance of constant adaptation.

AI-Powered Cooling: Algorithms that automatically adjust cooling to maximize energy efficiency.

Use of renewable energy: Cooling systems that operate in sync with solar panels and other green sources.

Immersion cooling: With an eye on quantum computing and AI, this technology eliminates the need for large air-conditioning systems.

Smart Cooling for Modular Data Centers

Modular data centers are already designed to integrate advanced cooling technologies, such as aisle containment. The flexibility of these modules allows for quick upgrades and adaptations to local climate conditions, ensuring greater operational efficiency. By investing in efficient cooling solutions, your company can not only reduce operating costs, thereby lowering the Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), but also contribute to the sustainability and longevity of digital operations.

Edgefy: Specialists in Modular and Sustainable Data Centers

At Edgefy, we believe that cooling is the key to an efficient and resilient data center. We offer modular solutions that integrate the most advanced cooling technologies, ensuring high availability and low environmental impact. Talk to us to learn how our solutions can optimize your operations and reduce costs.

Ready to make your data center more efficient? Get in touch with Edgefy and discover how our solutions can transform your operation.

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Climatização

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