The Barking Seal

Save Green – Turn Up That Data Center Thermostat!

23Jan
Author: ned Categories: Green IT, Infrastructure Comments: 3

As part of Applied Trust’s commitment to conservation in IT, we’re now running our machine room at a significantly higher temperature. Like many folks, we used to cool our data center to a chilly 60 degrees Farenheight (the purple line is ambient temperature):

One key strategy for reducing cooling load (and thus saving money and the environment) is to crank up the temperature of your machine room - cooling alone uses a third of all the power consumed by the data center! Back in the days of giant monolithic servers, it really was important to keep the temperature below 70 – with today’s modern hardware, that thinking is history like the Ice Age. Here’s what our server room temperatures look like now:

So far, we haven’t seen an increase in failures, although we’re monitoring this very closely and will give you an update if we notice any issues!

Tags: data center, efficiency