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Technical guideCitation2016

Liquid-cooled IT for the Masses: Achieving a Data Center PUE of 1.1

The Green Grid · Tahir Cader

A 2016 webcast on how liquid-cooled IT is moving from HPC into mainstream data centres and how warm-water cooling brings facility PUE to about 1.1.

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Overview

In this 2016 webcast a Green Grid expert explains that liquid-cooled IT, already common in HPC, is entering mainstream data centres. The headline claim is that facility PUE can reach around 1.1. It is a presentation, not a measurement report, so its evidential weight comes from the expert's account rather than a field data set. The title's phrase "for the masses" stresses that the target audience is ordinary enterprise data centres, not hyperscale operators.

The mechanism has two parts. The first is warm-water cooling: because the coolant runs at a higher temperature, chiller energy falls. The second is lower fan energy: when most heat is carried by liquid, server and room fans do less work. The webcast also touches on higher coolant temperature enabling waste-heat reuse, which is the subject of metrics such as ERE.

The record gives a single figure, a PUE near 1.1. It does not say at what liquid fraction, in what climate or under what load profile it was reached, and access requires library sign-in. The number should therefore be read as a plausibility bound, not a design guarantee. The related framework is the W classes of the ASHRAE TC9.9 liquid-cooling guidelines.

Key points

  1. Liquid-cooled IT is presented as a path to a facility PUE of about 1.1.
  2. Warm-water cooling reduces chiller energy.
  3. Fan energy falls once most heat moves into liquid.
  4. Higher coolant temperature makes waste-heat reuse possible.
  5. Format: 2016 webcast; related framework ASHRAE TC9.9 W classes.

Using it in design

  • For designs capturing at least 70-80% of heat to liquid with chiller-less warm-water loops, set the PUE target near 1.1.
  • Flag any model that reports a PUE below about 1.05 for review.
  • When setting a PUE target, record the liquid fraction and the water-loop temperature class (ASHRAE W class) together.

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Who should read it

Facility designers assessing the PUE effect of moving to liquid cooling and managers setting energy targets.

Related standards

  • ASHRAE TC9.9 Liquid Cooling Guidelines (W-classes)

Publication details

Authors
Tahir Cader
Publisher
The Green Grid
Year
2016
Document language
English
Source type
Industry body
Access
Citation only
Licence
Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document

Citation

Tahir Cader (2016). Liquid-cooled IT for the Masses: Achieving a Data Center PUE of 1.1. The Green Grid. https://www.thegreengrid.org/en/resources/library-and-tools/230-Liquid-cooled-IT-for-the-Masses%3A-Achieving-a-Data-Center-PUE-of-1.1

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