London Data Center Employs Evaporative Cooling

Virtus is building a data center in London – the LONDON2 – that will deploy a new cooling technology to decrease energy consumption, bringing site power usage effectiveness (PUE) to below 1.2. By using fresh-air, evaporative cooling technology, solar panels, ground water from its own well, chimney racks for heat extraction and highly efficient UPS systems, the LONDON2 will be a highly energy efficient data center for London, according to Virtus.

The LONDON2 data center will also use heat pumps to recirculate heat generated by the IT equipment into communal areas.

The site will deliver 11.4 MW of IT power when it opens in summer 2014. Clients can choose ultra-high power density cabinets of up to 40 kW, which can be clustered or installed next to standard power density cabinets without clients having to buy in-row cooling.

Earlier this month, outdoor retailer REI said it retrofitted its Seattle data center with a rooftop evaporative cooling tower to keep servers at optimal temperatures, resulting in a 93 percent reduction in the cooling energy used to operate the facility.