on february 17th, 2013, in washington d.c., at the forward on climate rally, it is expected that tens of thousands will rally in the u.s. on climate change. the goal of the event is to send a message to the u.s. government that changes to the way the u.s. generates and uses energy is important in the work of climate change.  but what does that have to do with mechanical and thermal engineering?  plenty.  at the very level of the system, engineers can make the most basic architecture changes that can impact this issue and their company's bottom lines.

take for instance the standard aluminum heat sink.  by all accounts such a device is the most economical and flexible to use of the thermal management tools in the engineers tool kit.  but as dr. al ortega presented at semi-therm in 2012, in his presentation, "the energy cost of cooling electronic systems: reflections on past lessons and future opportunities":

"using air cooling through extruded aluminum parallel plate heat sinks is an example of extreme cost driven thermal design.  we can show that by common measures us to rate heat exchangers, these tpes of heat sinks have inferior effectiveness.  this ineffectiveness leads to high exergy destruction and therefore excessive energy costs".

and dr. ortega isn't the only one who's presented this finding.  marlin vogel, in his 2009 semi-therm presentation, "low profile heat pipe heat sink and green performance characterization for next generation cpu module thermal designs", noted

"typically in the past, if two heat sink technologies met the thermal performance requirements along with meeting the reliability performance requirements, the least expensive technology would be utilized. in the future, heat sink thermal performance specficiations will consider including the impact of energy cost savings attained through reduced server air flow rate requirements if utilizing a superior heat sink technology warrants a potential increase in heat sink cost."

this discussion isn't limited to our thoughts here on the editorial staff at coolingzone.  when we presented this issue at linked in on various thermal management groups we saw a good deal of discussion and debate on this issue from leading engineers in our field.  the debates are well worth the read, and here are the links to them, each covering the topic of thermal management for electronics and energy:

1. linked in/thermal management discussion
   
2. linked in/themal analysis
   
3. linked in/thermal mechanical engineer
   

when engineers design thermal management systems, considerations at the architecture level can make an impact.  making choices beyond the bom (cost and part number) can reduce energy usage per system, reduce carbon emissions overall, help our planet and reduce the cost of running the ever increasing number of data centers in the u.s. and the world.

and if your going to the forward on climate rally drop us some mail at [email protected] and let us know!  coolingzone will be there to cover the event.