Efficient Cooling and Heat Recovery with VRF Systems in Embedded Data Centers

Data centers house the information technology (IT) equipment that powers the modern world. These facilities range in size from small networking closets to ware-house-scale buildings operated by large Internet companies. While discussions of data centers often focus on the latter, industry experts estimate that small and mid-size data centers house 40% of all servers in the United States (NRDC, 2014), which are embedded in office buildings, schools, banks, hospitals, and a variety of commercial facilities. These small data centers are estimated to account for 49% of the energy consumed by the data center industry, which as a whole was estimated to represent 70 billion kWh in 2014 (LBNL, 2016). With an estimated 2.5 million small data centers in the U.S.-over 10 times as many as all fast-food restaurants combined-these buildings represent an enormous opportunity for energy savings that often goes overlooked.