Data Center Liquid-Cooling: 60% Cooling Savings, Waste-Heat Recovery and 1 Year Payback
EW-201332
Objective
RackCDU is a unique data center efficiency technology that brings high-performance liquid-cooling directly to the hottest elements inside each server (“hot-spot cooling.”) The objective of this project is to validate the energy savings and life-cycle cost benefits of RackCDU by showing that, compared to state-of-the-art air-cooling, hot-spot cooling installed as a retrofit in an existing Department of Defense (DoD) data center (will provide: (1) 60-80% reduction in cooling energy; (2) 20-30% reduction in peak load; (3) waste-heat recovery of 40-60%; (4) consolidation of data center capacity by 2.5 times without expanding the footprint or air cooling infrastructure; and (5) more than 10 times life-cycle savings-to-investment ratio. The demonstration will be conducted at the Naval Enterprise Data Center, Louisiana.
Technology Description
RackCDU replaces the existing heat-sinks in standard commercial servers with an innovative sealed liquid-cooling loop. Water is 4,000 times better at transporting heat than air. RackCDU brings water directly to the hottest components in each server, but keeps the water self-contained within a factory-sealed, closed-loop system, preventing direct contact with electronic components. The system then transports the heat out of the building, where it can be passively cooled with outside air (“free cooling”). The heated liquid can also be used to pre-heat water for a facility’s hot-water system, providing no-cost renewable energy. This system can be installed in existing servers and racks as an on-site retrofit.
Benefits
RackCDU could reduce global DoD facility electricity consumption by up to 1.8 billion kWh/year and generate up to 6.0 trillion BTUs/year of renewable energy, saving more than $200 million per year and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 5 million tons per year. RackCDU can also reduce total data center peak load by 20-30%, reducing strain on local electrical grid infrastructure, further improving energy security. The ability to increase server density 2.5 times will also enable significant capital avoidance over the next decade, as DoD strives to meet its current mandates for data center consolidation. This demonstration will provide the data, awareness, and confidence needed to drive adoption of hot-spot cooling throughout DoD. It will also provide immediate benefit to the demonstration site from reduced energy consumption, reduced peak load, on-site renewable generation, and significant capital avoidance during the term of the project. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2015)
Points of Contact
Principal Investigator
Mr. Andre Eriksen
Asetek, Inc.
Phone: 408-398-7437
Fax: 650-745-1273
Document Types
- Fact Sheet - Brief project summary with links to related documents and points of contact.
- Final Report - Comprehensive report for every completed SERDP and ESTCP project that contains all technical results.
- Cost & Performance Report - Overview of ESTCP demonstration activities, results, and conclusions, standardized to facilitate implementation decisions.
- Technical Report - Additional interim reports, laboratory reports, demonstration reports, and technology survey reports.
- Guidance - Instructional information on technical topics such as protocols and user’s guides.
- Workshop Report - Summary of workshop discussion and findings.
- Multimedia - On demand videos, animations, and webcasts highlighting featured initiatives or technologies.
- Model/Software - Computer programs and applications available for download.
- Database - Digitally organized collection of data available to search and access.