Data centre contamination cuts power efficiency by 2%

The research, which has been independently verified by the University of Southampton's Research Institute, reveals that, if left untreated, contamination accumulates on circuit boards and acts as a thermal insulating layer. Kaushal Doshi, group director at data centre contamination management firm 8 Solutions, explains that this layer of particulate matter causes temperatures to rise, triggering cooling fans to work harder. Cooling efficiency will also be lost if heat sinks, or if intake and outlet vents or the fans themselves become clogged with contamination, further contributing to increased power consumption, he says. "The warranty and system uptime benefits of contamination management have been well established for some time, but this study provides empirical evidence that regular professional cleaning will also have a significant impact on an organisation's carbon footprint and energy bills," comments Doshi. The research was carried out on a live, loaded server, housed in a large data centre in London's Docklands, in a rack that had not been cleaned for 12 months – ensuring the test environment replicated average contamination levels. The 'as found' power consumption was measured for one week, before a deep clean was undertaken by 8 Solutions' technicians. Simon Cox, professor of Computational Methods at Southampton, says: "The findings showed that the load in the second test week was almost 10% higher than the first, yet the power consumption was very slightly lower. Understanding that the server's load and power draw are not proportionally linked, we were able to calculate that had the load remained constant, power consumption would have fallen by close to two percent." This, he says, indicates that, for a data centre housing just 800 racks, averaging 1,500kW per rack, the power saving would equate to 201,000 kWh/year. Based on an energy cost of 10p/kWh, that indicates a saving of £20,100, as well as 86,430 kg of CO2.