Jason Koffler, founder and managing director, Critical Power Supplies
With rising energy costs, the need to reduce power consumption is not in question. What is in question is whether or not businesses are managing energy and how far that management extends?
How can you reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency if you don’t monitor and measure what you use?
Often these days the approach to energy efficiency, particularly in data centres, is to install new, energy efficient equipment (computers, servers, UPS and switchgear). In a new build facility, this is doable. For established premises with legacy equipment the cost of ripping out and replacing such appliances is often unfeasible and attention then switches to other large-scale initiatives that promise big returns, such as cooling.
Cooling is the greatest operational energy consumer in the data centre and the one with the most remedial possibilities so it can generate big returns if it is the focus of energy reduction plans.
Old-fashioned frugality delivers when applied to energy efficiency
My Grandmother used to say: “Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves”. It’s a simple statement and perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to ignore. It never meant anything to me in the heady days of my youth but my well-intentioned Grandmother was trying to get me to be more mindful of the value of money and to not waste it. Back then, I wasn’t interested in the pennies, only in the pounds.
I don’t think my attitude is uncommon and I think parallels can be drawn with the approach to energy efficiency these days.
Focussing on the big-ticket items (the pounds) where energy efficiency is concerned leaves the smaller ones (the pennies) to go unchecked.
The pennies (in the above scenario) are products such as PDUs, power strips, cabling, connectors, adaptors, sockets and indeed any ancillary or supporting equipment.
Unless it’s new, this equipment will not be as energy efficient as it could. Electrical goods get hot when operating and this is wasted energy. Modern power strips, PDUs and supporting equipment as outlined, generate far less heat when operating than their older counterparts. It is far more cost-effective to replace these items than to replace all the server hardware, computing and power protection systems.
Another reason to focus on power strips and PDUs is to enable energy monitoring and management, which newer equipment supports.
Some types of modern power strips have the ability to perform user controlled, sequential outlet start up, which saves electricity by preventing all connected devices from powering up at the same time.
High-end or ‘intelligent’ power strips (also referred to as ‘networked’ power strips) supplement sequential power up and surge suppression with environment monitoring, which includes temperature, humidity, water sensing and dry contact closures – all of which can have a baring on facility-wide energy efficiency. Some power strips will switch off an individual socket if the connected appliance goes into standby mode. In equipment-dense environments this alone can have a huge bearing on reductions in electricity consumption.
Power strips can further reduce expenditure by lowering the lifetime cost of the equipment plugged into them and extending its life. Intelligent power strips, along with infrastructure power monitoring, can help reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency. Outlet level metering helps pinpoint and highlight equipment that is not operating efficiently. Power strips also play a primary role in preserving server uptime.
Today’s power strips, PDUs and ancillary equipment contain microchips and have individual IP addresses so they can be monitored by energy monitoring systems. And that’s the next stage.
Racktivity provides a range of power metering and monitoring products and services and has recently launched DC and AC meters to monitor and meter large distributed estates of equipment. It’s the missing link for businesses (particularly data centres) that are now able to have a complete view of power capacity usage.
We sell a range of socket strips from Eaton Power (and other quality manufacturers) designed for vertical mounting. They can also be mounted on the side or back of a cabinet to preserve rack space.
So, there is really no excuse to be in the dark as to how much energy a business, organisation or data centre is consuming. There’s also no reason not to take steps just because it’s not feasible to do anything about the big-ticket items. Pound for pound, you may not save as much by focusing on the pennies but the exercise will pay for itself and offer a bigger return on investment as time goes on. Perhaps sage old Grandma wasn’t as naïve as I thought.
