Data Centre Air Segregation Efficiency (ASE)

Session 15, Paper 4, CIBSE ASHRAE Technical Symposium, Dublin, Ireland, 3-4 April 2014

Data centres are large energy consumers. In recent years the industry has focussed on improving energy performance by identifying efficiency opportunities and implementing design and operational changes, thereby optimising operational costs.
Typically the IT equipment and cooling systems consume the most energy and there is significant scope to target energy savings. Most data centres are air cooled therefore air management within the data hall is an important enabler to avoid energy wastage and allow savings. Different methods are employed to segregate hot and cold air streams; metrics describe how effectively data hall air is managed by quantifying bypass, recirculation and flow availability. This paper defines a new metric which quantifies the efficiency of air separation, helping users to quantify and define potential improvements, energy / operating cost savings whilst managing risk.