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Sealing the open gaps in server racks is a well-known best practice when implementing airflow management improvements in a data center. After all, sealing these gaps (both within and along the sides of cabinets) often provides the greatest return on investment of any...

A set of Excel tools will not make us a certified PE or replace the need for a PE or architectural engineer to design our data center. Or, obviate the need for a mechanical facilities engineer to oversee ongoing operation; however, such tools can provide us with a...

Last summer I thought it might be interesting to explore the different elements that contribute to the cost of cooling our data centers and explore the feasibility of developing some easy-to-use Excel tools to help in comparing costs of different design options and...

The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric is the most popular method of calculating energy efficiency in the data center. Although hotly debated for its limitations, its use is still very prevalent throughout the industry. Developed by the Green Grid, PUE is simply...

What does frying an egg have to do with data center efficiency? Well, nothing really, but when we’re looking at the concept of exergy, i.e. the measure of not only energy itself, but the usefulness of that energy, the example of frying an egg helps explain this...

According to the most recent AFCOM State of the Data Center Industry report, organizations continue to invest in solutions which help improve overall redundancy levels. For power, N+1 is still primary, but N+2 redundancy designs are expected to grow by over 40% over...

What is liquid cooling? To put it simply, liquid cooling is when the removal of a heat source is done by a liquid. Pretty straightforward, right? It should be, but there’s actually quite a few misconceptions as to what solutions are considered ‘liquid cooling’ and...

Is the time right for the 100 degree Fahrenheit data center? It sure seems like it should be with the ASHRAE TC9.9 guidelines allowing server inlet temperatures up to 95˚F for Class A2 servers, 104˚F for Class A3 servers and 113˚F for Class A4 servers. When we finally...

First of all, although this post will cover the concept of liquid cooling, it’s important to note that we’ll take a bit of a higher-level approach initially to better understand the market. With that being said, liquid cooling is a very real technology being leveraged...

Simply put, the term ‘delta T’ refers to the change in temperature through various locations in the computer room. However, depending on who you ask you’ll likely get a different answer as to where THE delta T is located. If you ask Facilities person, they might talk...

In this long series on cooling efficiency algorithms dating back to last September, I have presented tools for quantifying the energy use impact in the data center of:Pressure and temperature differentials across cooling coilsTemperature differentials delivered to...

We get the chance to talk about a lot of interesting things here on the Upsite blog. Future technologies, ways you can make your data center more efficient, and how to plan around better designs for your business initiatives.However, we don’t always discuss the...