Tier III data center AISO.net (Affordable Internet Services Online) in Romoland, Calif., says it is saving 80 percent in energy costs translating to $24,000 per year from using Coolerado’s energy efficient air conditioners.
By using virtualization techniques, AISO has been able to fill its 2,000-sq-foot data center with more equipment, giving it greater capacity, but it needs AC that can cool the more dense environment. AISO replaced its existing Computer Room Air Conditioner (CRAC) unit with three Coolerado C60 Heat Mass Exchange (HMX) air conditioning units. The HMX conditions air using indirect and staged evaporative cooling.
The company’s AC technology is different from both conventional air conditioners and evaporative coolers, explained a spokesman for Coolerado. Traditional AC recirculates the same air, while evaporative coolers bring in fresh air and cool it with water, which can lead to air that’s too high in humidity.
Coolerado uses water and outside air, but each HMX has about a half mile of air channels to filter the air. “We have a control board that monitors the temperature and how much water the heat exchanger needs and cools it in 20 successive stages,” said the spokesman. The net result is a cooling product that provides conditioned, humidity-neutral air and consumes only enough energy to power a fan.
In April, Coolerado said the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado cut its overall data center power consumption by 70 percent utilizing Coolerado air conditioners.
AISO uses other green techniques, such as on-site solar panels, that enable the company to run at full capacity, including air conditioning, without plugging into the California power grid.