Total Cost of Ownership Comparison of Air Economizers to Other Energy Saving Techniques in Data Center Applications

A recent report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicates that data centers now account for approximately 1.5% of energy consumption in the United States, with energy consumption expected to double by 2013. No doubt, a concerted effort must be made to reduce energy consumption in the data center. It is known that the most effective way to conserve energy is to reduce consumption within the IT equipment because of how this savings cascades throughout the entire infrastructure, but the focus of this paper will be only on the cooling system. The application of economizers, either fluid or air, is sometimes viewed as the ultimate method to reduce energy consumption in data center applications. Nonetheless, the purpose of this paper is to show that other methods of energy reduction can be employed in the data center, resulting in very favorable energy savings and low system Total Cost of Ownership (TCC). This paper includes a case study, showing equipment and installation costs of with economizer systems, either fluid or air, along with the energy consumption of each. In addition to energy savings, total cost of ownership must also be considered when deciding on employing more energy efficient solutions. Equipment and installation costs, along with annual energy costs, are used to calculate and compare total cost of ownership over a 15-year period.