Study on Improved Airflow Measure in Data Centers

Higher efficiency of data center air conditioning requires higher efficiency of the air conditioner itself, but it is also important to match the operation of the air conditioning system to the features of the ICT equipment. ICT equipment is usually cooled with air from the air conditioning system drawn in from the front and the warmed air is exhausted to the rear (front intake and rear exhaust). Other airflow patterns, such as bottom intake and top exhaust, are also used by some equipment. Failure to match the air conditioning system airflow direction with that of the type of ICT equipment in data center may cause unnecessarily higher power consumption. In this report, we verify that proper selection of the air intake and exhaust direction to suit the ICT equipment reduces air conditioning power consumption. One measure to improve airflow is to separate air intake and exhaust to reduce recirculation of exhaust air by ICT equipment that has different air intake and exhaust directions. Measurements confirm that the temperature of ICT equipment intake air is reduced by 4.7deg C taking this measure.