16 More Ways to Cut Energy Waste in the Data Center (ENERGY STAR)

Overview

This source is a web page from the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR programme, published as a follow-on to an earlier list of measures for cutting energy waste in data centers; it contains 16 measures. The page is a US government work, and because no publication date appears on it, the year in the record corresponds to the access date, 2026. The content below rests on the page's summary and detailed facts.

The measures are grouped into IT, power infrastructure, airflow management, HVAC and other categories. On the IT side are consolidation, storage efficiency and server power management. Power infrastructure covers efficient PDUs and UPS systems, including eco-mode. Airflow management has hot and cold aisle layout, containment and general airflow management; HVAC lists in-rack and in-row cooling, air-side and water-side economizers, humidification adjustments, and sensors and controls.

The page also gives numerical savings indications. High-efficiency PDUs are 2-3% more efficient than conventional units. Running UPS systems in eco-mode can cut data center energy costs by up to 2%. With containment, the DOE estimates fan energy reductions of 20% to 25%, and energy expense can fall 5% to 10% in hot/cold aisle rooms. Water-side economizers can reduce the cost of chilled water by up to 70%, and deduplication can reduce stored data by more than 95% at many organizations.

In one example, BNY Mellon widened humidification set points and cut humidifier run time from 80% to 20% of the time. The limit of the source is that these are general savings ranges and not the result of a site-specific calculation; real gains depend on load, climate and existing infrastructure. The figures should therefore be treated as indicative in design decisions and verified with a project-specific energy model.

Key points

1. The measures form 16 items grouped into IT, power infrastructure, airflow management, HVAC and other categories.
2. High-efficiency PDUs are 2-3% more efficient than conventional units.
3. Running UPS systems in eco-mode can cut data center energy costs by up to 2%.
4. With containment, DOE estimates fan energy reductions of 20% to 25%; energy expense can fall 5% to 10% in hot/cold aisle rooms.
5. Water-side economizers can reduce the cost of chilled water by up to 70%.
6. Deduplication can reduce stored data by more than 95% at many organizations.
7. BNY Mellon widened humidification set points, cutting humidifier run time from 80% to 20%.

Using it in design

• Map each measure to an efficiency-check rule: missing containment, UPS in double-conversion only, no economizer, and so on.
• Show the ENERGY STAR savings ranges as indicative, not as a calculated result.
• Review humidification set points; wide ranges can cut humidifier run time.
• Verify the suitability of air-side and water-side economizers for the local climate separately in the energy model.

Who should read it

Designers and operations engineers who want to identify quick energy-saving opportunities in new or existing data centers.

Publication details

Authors

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Publisher

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (ENERGY STAR)

Year

2026

Document language

English

Source type

Government / public

Access

Free to read

Licence

U.S. public domain — U.S. Government work; free to reuse

Citation