Video: Relationships between HVAC efficiency and power usage effectiveness (PUE)

Learning objectives

• Develop a basic historical understanding of how data center design has evolved and how the state of the art (at that time) computer systems shaped how we look at power and cooling systems today.
• Learn about how current technology in retail, banking, analysis and the Internet of Things (IoT) requires massive amounts of data processing power and storage, ultimately resulting in the construction of data centers.
• Understand how advancements in cooling system design have led to significant reductions in energy usage, even from a decade ago.
• Identify metrics used in the data center industry, such as ones that define levels of energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and water use efficiency.

The power and cooling requirements of IT equipment ultimately determine how a data center’s HVAC and electrical infrastructure is designed. As such, given the continual, rapid pace of innovation in computer servers, storage and networking equipment, it is sometimes difficult to plan for the future when designing a data center.

This lesson builds a foundation for other topics related to data center planning and design by providing insight into the past, but also looking into the future and what types of computer systems are likely to be released. The following topics will be covered in the lesson:

1. Impact of new IT on the data center
2. Impact of new facilities power and cooling technology on the data center
3. Projected changes in electrical load densities
4. Anticipated changes in environmental conditions
5. Estimated future improvements in efficiencies
6. Impacts of new/revised data center industry standards and benchmarks.

Presenter: Bill Kosik, PE

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