Most data centers have been cooling there servers using air cooling method. While the method is used widely, it is not very cost-friendly and green because many times the cooling cost is almost equivalent or even higher than the equipment cost.
To solve this problem a company called Green Revolution Cooling has introduced a radical new approach to cooling via a liquid dielectric coolant in which the data server can be submerged.
The greatest advantage of this technology is that it reduces cooling energy use by 90-95 percent and the total energy usage by almost 50 percent. The fluid used for the cooling system is a clear, odorless, non-toxic, and low-cost non-conductive white mineral oil that can hold 1200 times more heat than air when the server is submerged in it.
There are certain visible advantages of the fluid cooling system over traditional air cooling methods:
•With liquid cooling environment servers do not gather dust on them and they remain virtually dust-free.
•There are no fans that can wear and tear and fail to work leading to server heating. Therefore, the servers’ life is indirectly increased.
•Liquid cooling makes it easy to recover the heat produced and use it for some other useful purpose.
•Overheating of the server and failure is minimized because the liquid cooling is more controlled than air cooling method.
•The use of digital technology is increasing every day and therefore the fluid cooling method gives a greener and energy efficient choice to maintain the server cloud than the air cooling system.
•Servers cooled with mineral oil are more safely overlocked therefore the same chips are run at a higher speed.
According to the manufacturers,
Our system will cool up to 100kW in a 42U rack in its current configuration. This is equivalent to an air-cooled system near 120kW since nearly 20kW of that 120kW would be used by server fans. Our system offers orders of magnitude better convective cooling than an air-cooled system and thus can handle higher densities.
The cost-wise advantage of this system is also noteworthy. For a brand new data center the upfront cost can be drastically reduced with smaller generator, smaller UPS, no CRACs, no chillers and no need for raised floor. Add to it the low energy usage and high performance and it is a complete win -win situation.
The liquid cooling system for data servers is surely a next generation green technology.
