UK and Western Europe Data Centers and the Impact of Raising Gas Prices
Welcome to Purkay Labs’ Keep Your Cool blog - a series about tackling simple cooling optimization strategies for the busy data center operators by a former busy center manager, Gregg Haley.
As the price of gas continues to rise across the globe, operators are searching for new methods, technologies and strategies to save on electricity costs.
In the United Kingdom and Western Europe, the conflict in Ukraine has exacerbated the pressure to reduce energy. Since December of 2020 when gas was 49.69 pence per Therm -to June 2022 when it sold at 149.49 per Therm - gas prices have been extremely volatile spending most of the time above the 200 per Therm rate. (Source Statistica 2022). These increased costs eat into the profit margins.
A simple solution is to baseline the existing environment to identify potential airflow issues. By identifying these “opportunity” areas, you might be able to make simple adjustments, such as changes to perforated tiles and the addition of containment curtains, to optimize airflow.
Before- Cold Aisle with Hot Spot
After- Cold Aisle
The Purkay Labs’ AUDIT-BUDDY System makes it easy to quickly baseline and generate diagnostic data to show you where to eliminate the low-hanging fruit. As you make environmental changes you can compare the results against the baseline to quantify the improvements. Portable, temporary and economical this tool is easy to use - and it can be placed any from your cold aisle to inside of a floor mounted PDU to UPS Systems to inside your return or CRAC ducts. Wherever you need quick access to accurate thermal data the AUDIT-BUDDY is the best answer.
Now more than ever, British and Western European Data Centers need enact every “best practices” to optimize energy efficiency in white space. A project deemed to save 3-4 percent of energy costs prior to 2020, suddenly has become a 10-12% savings opportunity. Identifying these simple to fix airflow efficiencies is a good starting point.
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