An analysis of the impact of datacenter temperature on energy efficiency

Abstract

The optimal air temperature for datacenters is one of ways to improve energy efficiency of datacenter cooling systems. Many datacenter owners have been interested in raising the room temperature as a quick and simple method to increase energy efficiency. The purpose of this paper is both to provide recommendations on maximizing the energy efficiency of datacenters by optimizing datacenter temperature setpoint, and to understand the drivers of datacenter costs. This optimization and the potential energy savings used in cooling system can drive higher energy use in IT equipment and may not be a good trade off. For this reason, this paper provided a detailed look at the overall effect on energy of temperature changes in order to figure out the optimal datacenter temperature setpoint. Since this optimal temperature range varies by equipment and other factors in the datacenter, each datacenter should identify its appropriate temperature based on the optimization calculation in this paper. Sensitivity analysis is used to identify the drivers of the cost of ownership in a datacenter and to identify opportunities for datacenter efficiency improvement. The model is also used to evaluate potential datacenter efficiency.