A type of cooling economization recently introduced for use in California data centers has proven substantial energy and water savings, two objectives important to data center managers virtually everywhere. The technology, called pumped refrigerant economization, was accepted for use in data centers by the California Energy Commission (CEC) after an extensive engineering study supported by Digital Realty and Emerson Network Power.
The study demonstrated energy and water savings in 14 of the 16 California climate zones, compared to water economization. As a result, CEC now allows pumped refrigerant economization as a prescribed option for data center cooling, in addition to air and water economization.
Key results of the engineering study* are as follows:
12.8% reduction in MWh of energy used
8.5% reduction in TDV (Time Dependent Valuation (TDV) is a measure of efficiency used by the CEC)
4.339 million gallons of water saved annually, compared to water-side economization
* Based on a 1.2MW data center with standard redundancy assumptions (N+2) and conservative return air temperatures (80°F) with containment, across all 16 California climate zone.
