The world runs on data. And data requires electricity. The electricity runs the servers, powers the fans that move the air through the racks, and drives the essential Computer Room Air Conditioners (CRACs) that keep everything operating safely. But what if you could use the same off-the-shelf servers and cut the overall energy cost in half while reducing the build cost for a new data center?
A company called Green Revolution Cooling has come up with a way to do just that. They simply submerge the blades in order to make cooling more efficient. Instead of air, the system relies on a "dielectric coolant" to transfer heat away from the electronic components. According to the company website, the liquid is based on mineral oil; "essentially baby oil without the fragrance."
Why put your servers in a baby oil bath? The liquid has 1,200 times the heat capacity of air by volume. (Keep in mind that air is used as an effective insulator, not a heat conductor.) Furthermore, the "cooling bath" works effectively at temperatures as high as 104 degrees F, so far less cooling is required to maintain a safe operational temperature.
Submerging the servers can result in a 10% to 25% savings right off the top, simply by removing the fans from the power supplies and motherboards because they are no longer needed. The amount of air conditioning capacity required for the facility is greatly reduced, which eliminates both construction costs and electrical consumption. In a case study posted on the company website, the Green Revolution Cooling technology made it possible to reduce the build cost for a project by 50%, and then delivered another 50% annual power savings. Over a ten-year period, the installation is expected to save $100,000 in construction costs and an additional $500,000 in reduced energy bills.
