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Keeping a Data Center Cool on the Cheap
Posted by
timothy
on Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:56 PM
from the yankee-ingenuity dept.
from the yankee-ingenuity dept.
jedimaud writes "You've heard of bubble wrap, and the boy in the bubble -- now, here's a datacenter in a bubble. I work for a government agency that, like most, is trying to cut back some costs, and one of those costs is a REAL datacenter. So, we decided to wrap the whole thing in plastic (including two 1.5 ton ACs). The room hovers about 83 degrees, however, the racks in the bubble (ok, more like a termite tent) stay about 10 degree cooler. Here's some pics to check it out."
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Wow... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow... (Score:3, Funny)
Here's some pics to check it out.
Re:Wow... (Score:3, Funny)
cool? its a bit amatuer. (Score:3, Informative)
Then work with the university of Virginia [virginia.edu] evolved from that research. Finally, in work done with Duke U. it paid off in the form of software tools that were reported at Usenix'05 [you can ignore password pop-up if you go thru the google cache] [64.233.161.104] as saving 25% of cooling costs, thats can be over $1000000/year for large data centers by dynamically distributing work load to machines that are running cooler by
Hmmm (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hmmm (Score:2, Funny)
Wonder if... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wonder if... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Wonder if... (Score:3, Insightful)
Warning: Suffocation risk (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Warning: Suffocation risk (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Warning: Suffocation risk (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Needs more duct tape... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Needs more duct tape... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Note from the metrology freak (Score:5, Informative)
"Ton" here refers to a "ton of cooling," a measure of power. It was originally intended to mean "the power required to melt one ton of ice in 24 hours." Since that varies based on a bunch of conditions, it was pegged at 12,000 Btu/h.
When they changed the definition of "calorie" to mean 4.1868 J, converting Celsius to Fahrenheit and grams to pounds gives us a conversion factor of 1 ton of cooling being exactly 3 516.852 842 066 7 W.
In other words, each a/c unit is about 5.25 kW of cooling each, or 10.5 kW total.
Oh, and 83 degrees Fahrenheit is about 301 kelvin and a ten-degree Fahrenheit difference is a difference of 6 kelvin.
(According to my old HVAC prof, there's been little to no progress in "metricizing" the industry in the US. Having used both systems in his course, I'd say I prefer US units, if only because the unit descriptions on things like insulative properties make more sense when the units for thickness and area don't naturally cancel each other out.)
(And it could be worse. Most home a/c units are labelled on the box as putting out x number of Btu, suggesting they're disposable.)
(Well, they probably are...)
Re:Note from the metrology freak (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Note from the metrology freak (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Note from the metrology freak (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Note from the metrology freak (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, I may be a fat geek, but I'm not THAT fat!
Parent
Note from the Entomology freak (Score:5, Funny)
"Most termite species are tropical or subtropical, but a few live in temperate regions." I'd posit that even fewer live in a properly cooled data center. So, on the surface (no pun intended), this doesn't seem to be a good comparison.
But reading further into the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org]: "Termites have biting mouthparts and are soft-bodied, of moderate to small size. They live in dark nests and tunnels, except when the winged alates emerge to leave their parent colony." When comparing termites to geeks, they both seem to have biting mouth parts and the geeks are definitely soft-bodied. And of smaller size. And, like the termites, true geeks live in their parent's basement.
"Termites cannot themselves digest the wood that they consume." Few geeks can live on chewed-up pencils. So again, another similarity.
Lastly, Termites construct extremely large and elaborate mounds to house their colonies.
Parent
Re:Note from the metrology freak (Score:4, Informative)
... which means 10 is 5 5/9, rounding up to 6. Guess I didn't use the word "about" enough times for you.
/= centigrade. The freezing point is also flakey, but not within three decimal places at least. This is why all modern temperature scales are pegged to the triple point (273.16 K)instead of trying to correlate two data points that move around with respect to each other.
But hey, if you really wanna get anal, do it right.
"assuming that 273 K = 32 degF,"
32 degrees Fahrenheit is 273.15 kelvin.
"The temperatures chosen were freezing and boiling of water at 1 atm pressure, in case anyone didn't know."
At 101 325 Pa, water boils at 373.124 kelvin. Celsius
"The correct Fahrenheit boiling point of water (at 1 atm) is 212 degF.)"
Try 211.953 degrees Fahrenheit.
Oh, and the first letter of SI units (like kelvin) is never capitalized.
Parent
one small mistake: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'd fire anyone... (Score:3, Insightful)
metric is the standardised universal way to communicate, hence the tool to use.
Just as english is currently the standardized and *mostly* universal communication language and should therefore be used whenev
Real Data Center (Score:5, Informative)
Insulation is always a nice idea, be the fact of the matter is that to reject the heat from the space you need to provide a means of heat trasnfer. Generally, that requires a temperature differential between your heat source and the outside. If it is cooler outside than in the space, not much is required. If it is warmer, you will have to take advantage of thermodynamics and use a compressorized cycle. This can be more or less efficient, depending on the difference in inside and outside temperatures.
(A typical data center operates with a 95-110F outside design temperature, and attempts to deliver 48F chilled water to the CRAC units (Computer Room Air Conditioning). This forces about 50% of the energy consumed by the computers to be used (again) to cool the equipment.)
Call an engineer when everything melts down...
Re:Real Data Center (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm pretty sure 3 (2x1.5) is considered a little more than 1.5 but perhaps I'm not using "real" math.
Parent
Damn... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Damn... (Score:3, Informative)
Tax money... (Score:3, Funny)
Peter.
Really a good idea? (Score:3, Insightful)
Might be a good idea to hookup a tempature controlled moter to pull the plastic down if the A/C dies, if you know how, and have a good junk pile, you can do that cheap enough....
Re:Really a good idea? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Build the datacenter in alaska (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Build the datacenter in alaska (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Build the datacenter in alaska (Score:2)
Any benefits might be offset by having to have huge UPS and generator systems.
Re:Build the datacenter in alaska (Score:3, Informative)
When you are running a mission critical datacenter (this is usually all of them, if we are talking about real datacenters here, not the closet of your 5000 square foot PC repair shop where you keep your web server), you have supplies to get you through any length of power outages. This usually includes supplies of diesel fuel and a contract with a fuel supplier to bring more diesel on site for the duration of the outage.
Do you have any clue how major datacen
Re:Build the datacenter in alaska (Score:3, Interesting)
Without the a/c on, my basement hovers around 68 degrees throughout the year. It's much easier to control the temperature than elsewhere in the house. With a way to actively dissipate heat (the ground loop), it'd be the ideal datacenter location without having to man a post in Alaska.
Re:Build the datacenter in alaska (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Mirror (Score:2)
email me the goods.
thumper **AT** alderflats.com
Crime Lab? (Score:2)
Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
http://mirrordot.org/stories/e90ad5cab7cfb4869cc0
Ouch. (Score:2, Funny)
It's misleading (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's misleading (Score:4, Interesting)
The key is to move your UPS out of the temperature controlled area, since that's the biggest source of heat in most server rooms. Then we were gradually replacing the multitude of old HP servers with the IBM servers. Each IBM could to the work of 4 HP's easily, and ran much cooler than a single HP.
Your 3 computers must be running 1000+ watt power supplies, multiple 6800 vid cards, and a ton of hard drives if your home a/c is having trouble cooling that room.
Parent
Re:It's misleading (Score:5, Informative)
The article was entitled "Keeping a Data Center Cool _on the Cheap_" (emphasis added)
The suggestion being that they were able to significantly cut back on the size and power consumption of the cooling plant by using plastic wrap.
Parent
this doesn't work... (Score:5, Funny)
try moving to india to try and get your job back from dell only to get dysintry and heat stroke, lose your wallet and end up working in low grade indian miget porno to get enough money to buy a can of coke, only to get typhode.
Bubbles...pfff...
Ps. I'm writing this from Iran, send help.
Better yet (Score:4, Funny)
Heh, great minds think alike! (Score:5, Interesting)
As one suggestion, though, cardboard (in 4x8ft sheets) proved a lot easier to work with than plastic sheets. For starters, the plastic requires attachment at the ceiling, and will eventually come loose under its own weight; cardboard, with a single fold in the sheet, will stand upright and support its own weight for years, assuming not too high of a humidity level. For another, cardboard won't flap around and potentially block air intakes nearly so easily as plastic will.
Believe it or not, though, what we found the most effective way to make use of barely adequate AC - Don't treat the room as a closed system. You've basically used the plastic sheets to build giant chimneys - Now take advantage of that fact, and along with a high volume fan above each rack, just exhaust the air at the top outside rather than recycle it back into the room... Think of it this way... You spec your cooling to work to perhaps 110F ambient, right? At the top of a full rack, with 50-60F going in the bottom, you probably have 120-130F going out the top. Does it take more work to cool 130F, or 110F, back to 50F? Not to mention, your normal ambient shouldn't come anywhere near 110F...
Re:Hello, Mr. Fire Marshall. (Score:3, Funny)
This is not about AC... (Score:3, Funny)
"Here's some pics to check it out." ?? Dead giveaway!
1.5 ton Anonymous Cowards? (Score:3, Funny)
I know that lots of geeks tend to gain weight, but those are big Anonymous Cowards!
Don't try this in YOUR datacenter. (Score:5, Funny)
Ever wonder why computers are made of metal? Why the plastic pieces are made of plastics that meet flammability performance standards?
Tiny Tim raises his hand
Yes, Tiny Tim?
Please, Mr Deacon Sir, so that if some source of ignition is present, the computer does not turn into a fireball spewing deadly poisionous smoke, Sir!
Very Good, Tiny Tim. And what happens if someone hangs up huge sheets of generic, flammable plastic in an area with lots of potential ignition sources?
Please, Mr Deacon Sir, sooner or later it catches fire, and people die. If these boneheads are lucky, Sir, someone from the Building Facilities or the Building Inspector will see this website and make them take it down, Sir.
Very good, Tiny Tim. The rest of the class is to read up on Flammability [geplastics.com].