A Closer Look At Immersion Cooling For the Data Center 213
1sockchuck writes "Want to save money on data center cooling? Tip your racks on their side, fill them with mineral oil, and submerge your servers. Austin startup Green Revoluton Cooling first profiled here) has a video demo of its immersion cooling solution, which it says can handle racks using up to 100kW of power. A photo gallery on the company web site shows some early installations."
Paging Dr. Freeze (Score:5, Informative)
1999 [slashdot.org] Have I been reading Slashdot that long?
Re:What about the hard drives? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, hard drives are *not* supposed to be air tight. They intentionally allow airflow into the HD, but through a filter to keep dust out. If you want a drive that is airtight, it'll cost more.
http://www.acsdata.com/how-a-hard-drive-works.htm [acsdata.com]
Re:False (Score:4, Informative)
Having worked in a fair number of server rooms, I'd say that the freequency of needing to service equipment has been dropping significantly over the lat 15 years. These days, it's almost a non-issue. I don't think I've pulled a single server for anything but replacement in the last 4 years.
Transfering heat to fluids is significantly more efficient, both on the recieving site (in the server) and the giving side (in the cooling tower). It requires less energy to transfer heat from components to the water (ie: no fans or heat sinks). And it requires less energy to transfer heat from the water in the cooling tower (ie: much smaller chiller/AC unit). So it is more efficient. Acording to the article, their solution consums 50% less energy than the traditional air conditioning and fans.
-Rick
Re:Mineral oil = nightmare (Score:5, Informative)
I once drank half a bottle of mineral oil, and let me tell you, leakage was definitely a concern.