Other passive cooling functions using so-called heat exchangers become possible as long as the outside temperatures remain under 20° Celsius. This enables cooling with virtually no use of energy and a reduction of up to 80% of the energy costs, depending on the ambient temperature. Of course, additional equipment for the warmer seasons of the year, which we must also consider, will become necessary.

The environment is playing an increasingly significant role when the site for a new computer center is being selected. The computer center is cooled using free air only up to a certain ­outside temperature. Cooling with a geothermal line close to the surface is possible because a temperature difference of about 10° Celsius is measured at a depth of about ten meters. This negative energy balance in the lower level can be used for cooling in the computer center.

Modularization of the computer center should be regarded as obvious today: a number of small server rooms provide a discrete climate for every application and system class besides raising the level of security and fire protection. They can be ­adjusted and ­controlled individually. Some of the server ­systems can even ­operate at substantially higher temperatures in ­these ­special rooms, cutting down on air conditioning costs. The ­energy consump­tion in a computer center can be reduced even further with ­variable ceiling heights, different ­temperatures and ­humidities, and new chips which feature lower power ­consumption.

Thanks to all of these measures, the computer center is simultaneously an energy producer and energy consumer, making it a part of a power network involving many players, a so-called “electrical smart grid”. In addition, it can be used for heating. In one Detecon project, a swimming pool no longer in use at a convention hotel was “toughened up” with the aid of an installed “double bottom” and a cold aisle housing, turning it into a power supplier for part of the energy required by the hotel. The excess heat could also be used for the offices in the computer center.

The Future Green Enterprise Data Center 

A dynamic and adaptive green enterprise data center (GEDC) of the future adapts in all of the IT areas, especially those of energy consumption, to the pertinent requirements and circumstances of business as well as the application and system landscape. In our opinion, there are seven major success factors and basic technologies for the construction of such a GEDC.