Armstrong In The Media

As Seen on acr-news.com – September 12, 2016

By Dominic Cutts

Director – System Solutions at Armstrong Fluid Technology

Datacenters present the HVAC system designer with a number of challenges. Cooling loads are significantly higher than other commercial buildings, and there are specific demands relating to the sizing of equipment and the shorter-than-average upgrade cycle. Most importantly, system designers face a raft of regulatory guidelines around the energy efficiency performance of data centres, and the systems they specify are scrutinised closely throughout their lifecycles. So how do these challenges impact on design strategy?

By Wayne Rose

Global Marketing Manager at Armstrong Fluid Technology

In recent years datacenters have been faced with two conflicting priorities. The requirement for cooling continues to increase, driving up energy consumption, but there is also a growing need to reduce carbon footprint.

According to the National Resources Defense Council, datacenter energy consumption in the US is forecast to to reach 140 billion kWh by 2020, making the datacenter industry the largest user of energy in the US.

By Dominic Cutts

Director – System Solutions at Armstrong Fluid Technology

The HVAC industry is awash with acronyms but, if you are designing, installing or maintaining systems for datacenters, then the acronym that really matters is PUE. The PUE™ (Power usage effectiveness) metric provides a universal benchmark against which the environmental performance of every datacenter can be measured. It has been developed by The Green Grid Association (a non-profit, open industry consortium of end users, policy makers, technology providers, facility architects, and utility companies) and carries significant weight within the datacenter community. Whilst the guidelines issued by Green Grid and others (such as the EU Code of Conduct on Datacenters' Energy Efficiency) are currently voluntary rather than mandatory, these initiatives for accreditation and benchmarking of environmental performance provide powerful commercial advantages for those datacenter operators able to differentiate themselves through investment in energy efficiency.

By Dominic Cutts

Director – System Solutions, Armstrong Fluid Technology

Generating heat is an unavoidable outcome of electrical resistance within IT processors and, as IT processors become ever more powerful, the demand for cooling is rising. Chilled water cooling systems have a crucial role to play in dissipating heat to ensure server reliability and prevent downtime, but there is an environmental price to be paid. Overall energy demand of datacenters is escalating between 5% and 10% each year, and are responsible for 3% of the total electrical energy consumption in the UK. As a result, the environmental impact of datacenters has come under international scrutiny, with a number of organizations developing guidelines and regulatory frameworks for datacenter operation.