Field Measurements and Energy Performance Modelling of Water Side Free Cooling System for Datacenters

In recent years, number of free cooling system (FCS) applied in datacenters (DC) is increasing due to the provided significant decrease in the electricity consumption and short payback period. However, since FCS is a partially new technology, energy savings potential of FCS has not been sufficiently investigated using real time data series in the literature. In this study, the field measurements and energy performance analysis were performed in an operational DC with water-side free cooling, located in Ankara, Türkiye. Mathematical model of FCS is developed using electricity consumption data of IT devices and FCS, and climate data of Ankara using MS Excel. Electricity consumption of FCS and the PUE of the DC in case of installation of the existing DC in six different climate regions of Turkey were calculated using the developed model. In case of using the FCS, PUE value is obtained less than 1.1 for each location. The result shows that, very low temperatures are not required for the FCS, and the important factor is the number of hours that is lower than the indoor temperature of DC. In case of installation of the DC in Antalya and Şanlıurfa, which are among hottest cities of Türkiye, the electricity consumption of the FCS increased by 8 % and 9 %. However, since the energy consumption of FCS is still much lower than the IT consumption compared to the old type cooling systems, the use of the FCS provided adequate saving.