economization can be described as the process of getting the most from something. whether you’re loading groceries into your trunk to use the space as efficiently as you can, or you’re building data centers, economizing and avoiding waste can be important. california’s energy commission, or the cec, is ahead of the curve in terms of setting energy standards.

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they even pay special attention to how buildings like data centers economize their heat rejection processes when outside air temperatures fall to certain levels.

before 2012, only air and water coolants were approved for data center economization in california. the cec’s title 24 required that air-side-economized systems handled cooling when the outside temperature was 55°f or lower, while water-side-economized systems handled heat loads of 40°f or lower.

the limitations around using either air or water for cooling was felt the most at small to medium sized data centers, where these traditional systems were either too big or too costly to be implemented.

“at that time, we were exploring new cooling solutions for these kinds of data centers, and our partner emerson network power was also developing an alternative system which utilized pumped refrigerants. for nine months, we worked with emerson to find the operational, cost, and energy savings that could be gained from their liebert dse system.”

as it turned out, there was a potential to save more than 300 million gallons of water annually using the liebert dse system in data centers compared to using traditional chilled water systems…

read the full case study at https://www.digitalrealty.com/blog/case-study-improving-thermal-management-while-conserving-water/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog.