Relying on wonderful heat dissipation to reduce data center energy consumption is not necessarily applicable
In the context of energy saving and emission reduction, how to build a green and energy-saving data center, reduce energy consumption, and control costs, engineers have broken their hearts. Indeed, in the current explosion of data volume, the issue of energy conservation and emission reduction in data centers has attracted enough attention from major companies. In order to reduce the energy consumption of data centers, engineers have resorted to doing everything possible, such as building data centers on glaciers. Or under the sea, put the server in mineral oil to dissipate heat, use hot water to dissipate heat, and so on. First of all, let's take a look at the various "wonderful" heat dissipation methods in the data center.
1) Build data centers in the north and south poles
The data center will be built in the north and south poles to use the natural environment for heat dissipation. Since 2011, Facebook has announced the establishment of the data center in Lulea in northern Sweden to effectively use local renewable energy and ensure green environmental protection. . In addition, the National Science Foundation also plans to operate a data center in Antarctica. However, considering the impact of living conditions, climate, environment and power, transmission lines and other factors, it will be very difficult to establish a data center in the north and south poles.
2) Establish a data center on the seabed
Because water has a higher heat dissipation efficiency than air, many scientists are working hard to study how to use water resources to dissipate heat in data centers. It is understood that Microsoft Corporation of the United States is experimenting with underwater data centers, exploring the use of seawater to solve the two major problems of data center cooling and power supply and reduce operating costs. According to the report, since last year, Microsoft tested a prototype of an underwater data center for the first time in a sea area in western California. The prototype was placed in a steel cylindrical sealed cabin with a diameter of about 2.4 meters. Approximately 9 meters below the surface of the sea. Researchers manipulated it from the Microsoft headquarters office in Washington state in the northwestern United States. The underwater data center prototype is equipped with more than 100 sensors that can sense pressure, humidity and other conditions, helping researchers to better understand its operation in the underwater environment. Because the prototype worked well, the researchers not only extended the test time, but also used it to run the business data processing project of Microsoft's cloud computing service. It is understood that the three-month test has achieved success beyond expectations.
3) Use oil cooling to dissipate heat for the data center
Oil cooling actually evolved from water cooling. Because mineral oil is a non-polar substance, it will not affect the electronic integrated circuit and will not damage the internal hardware of the server. Therefore, if the server is immersed in a special oil, it will Can improve the heat dissipation efficiency very well. A long time ago, Intel and a company called Green Revolution Cooling designed a set of cooling solutions using mineral oil, and conducted a one-year test. The final result was jaw-dropping. The PUE of the system was as low as 1.02. -1.03, already very, very close to the limit value 1.
4) Use sea water/lake water/waste water for heat dissipation
Among the various heat dissipation solutions, the use of seawater/lake water/wastewater for heat dissipation is the most reliable and there are successful solutions. For example, Alibaba's Qiandao Lake data center uses lake water for natural cooling, which makes its annual average PUE lower than 1.3, and can reach 1.17 at the lowest point. Google makes full use of sea water for heat dissipation, and built such a building in Hamina, Finland. data center. Google also cooperated with the Wastewater Management Bureau in Douglas, Georgia, to take away most of the heat from the local data center by using domestic wastewater.
The cabling for thermal management of large data centers should comply with the following golden rules:
One is to use an integrated wiring system to limit airflow obstruction;
The second is to rationally design and manage the cables under the raised floor;
The third is to lay high-voltage cables under the floor of the cold aisle;
Fourth, the low-voltage communication cables are placed under the cabinet or directly under the hot aisle floor;
The fifth is to reduce the number of ceilings, or just place ceilings above the active cabinets.
