Data Center Energy Savings Through Heat Recovery Our Mission To advance environmental and economic well-being by providing unmatched energy services, products, education and information based on world-class research. About Us Our staff of over 100 people (energy engineers, energy specialists, technical experts, software developers, energy research librarians, and more) work out of our Olympia, Spokane and satellite offices. Operating similar to a consult- ing firm, the WSU Energy Program is a self-supported department within the University. Our customers include large and small businesses, public and private utilities, local and state governments, tribes, federal agencies and facilities, manufacturing plants, professional and trade associations, schools, universities, national laboratories, and consumers. For more information, visit our website, www.energy.wsu.edu. © 2013 Washington State University Energy Program This publication contains material written and produced for public distribution. You may reprint this written material, provided you do not use it to endorse a commercial product. Please reference by title and credit the Washington State University Energy Program. WSUEEP13-001 • February 2013 The WSU Energy Program IT specialists excel in computer programming, telecom and computer networking, wireless networking, Internet administration and other telephony technology. Increasing electricity use by data centers is a growing issue – at server farms run by big Internet corporations as well as in the data centers of universities, public agencies and companies across the country. This energy use is anticipated to grow as we transfer more activities online. Servers are among several components in data centers that consume energy. Industrial cooling systems and circuitry to keep backup batteries charged can account for 50 percent of the total energy consumed in a data center. The Washington State University (WSU) Energy Program is among the top-tier U.S. academic institutions, research groups and companies that are implementing vastly more efficient practices to cool state-of-the-art data centers. The WSU Energy Program is reducing energy use in its data center by: • Using heat pumps to remove heat produced by computing equipment. This saves energy by reduc- ing heat buildup in the data center and by provid- ing heat for the offices and library that occupy the rest of the building. • Arranging the servers in racks to maximize the efficiency of the cooling system. This also concen- trates waste heat so it can
