Review and analysis of HVAC strategies in different data centres in Malta - a comparison of energy-efficiency and operational conditions

Abstract

Data centres are infrastructural spaces which accommodate the requirements of servers that are responsible for data storage and data communication. To be able to deal with the high levels of heat generated by the Information Technology equipment hosted in these centres, data centres are coupled with mechanical cooling systems which allows the IT systems to operate at their optimum thermal conditions continuously all year round. Being constantly in operation the cooling technologies within data centres have a large impact on the overall energy performance of these data centres. Based on this premise, the work being presented in this research aims at studying the type of data centre cooling technologies and the operating parameters present in three commercial data centres in Malta, with the aim of understanding the operating conditions and energy-efficiency levels present in these centres. Temperature and humidity logging was carried out to analyse the data centres operating conditions in conjunction with an analysis of the performance of the cooling system present within the data centre. Furthermore, an energy performance metric was then used to enable the comparison of the energy performance of these data centres with one another, with the aim of highlighting good practices and possible limitations. The results obtained revealed that the use of Computer Room Air Conditioning cooling in Malta is predominant and that the most energy efficient data centre considered in this study made use of physically segregated cold and hot aisle cooling, as per typical industry recommendations. Research carried out also revealed the importance of the cooling strategy employed on the overall data centre efficiency.