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AtlantaNAP Is A Leader In The Green Data Center Facility Movement

When Data Centers were first being built, nobody really thought much about things like energy efficiency and environmental impact. But we're helping change that. While servers still require a significant power supply electricity, a carefully maintained indoor environment, and fail-safe backup systems, we're developing new ways to do it all in a more sustainable way.

1. When Bigger Is Not Better

The temptation for any successful organization is to build the largest, most impressive structure you can afford. But according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, the less material you use in the construction of your building the better. At AtlantaNAP we've built our Data Center with a minimum of materials that are not required for effective operation. A grand entryway may be impressive to a few clients, but the more drywall, marble and paint that goes into a facility the more energy is required to make and install those materials. And using more materials also results in more volatile organic compound being produced in the manufacturing of the materials. It also takes energy to transport these materials, which, along with their byproducts, end up in our landfills.
 

2. Keeping Cool And Still Using Less

Heat Pumps to Recycle Data Center BTU’S

An A/C unit cooling our dedicated server area

It doesn't take many computers to generate a lot of heat but it's important to their stability that they run in a carefully controlled climate. Many Data Centers use additional gas or electricity to heat and cool the non-data portions of their facilities. But we're implementing heat pumps that utilize the heat from the data center to heat the offices and generator rooms in the winter and utilize the data centers highly efficient cooling towers to provide cooling to the offices in the summer. This not only saves us money on burning gas or electricity to heat the space, but is more environmentally friendly. Our use of well water for the cooling towers also provides geothermal heat removal since all the water being input to the towers is from the earth at a constant 55 degrees Fahrenheit which removes btu's from the water and the building naturally.

Geothermal Cooling

Another cooling resource we're exploring is the use of well water in an outside cooling tower. As mentioned above it gives us natural BTU removal through geothermal cooling but it also gives us a big savings in water replacement and reduces the amount of electricity needed to distribute city water over long distances and the harmful chemicals used in its treatment for drinking purification, as well conserves potable water in the city’s watershed.

Air to Air Heat Exchange

Using an indoor climate computer, we monitor the outside temp and simply exchange our hot air in the heating and cooling system with chilled air from outside. This is another energy saver and that also takes a lot of load off the compressors of the AC units and eliminates the need for additional materials in the ac units in the form of waterside economizers which use precious copper.
 

3. Optimizing Pumps And Fans For Better Efficiency

Water pumps fueling the A/C units

Under the old way of designing a cooling system, you'd hire an engineering to come in and do a Doppler flow study on your water distribution pipes to make sure that the pumps when running at full speed were providing enough gallons per minute to your air conditioning units to remove enough BTUs from the air. Then you would manually adjust flow restricting valves that would "balance" your system to the proper amount.

This is highly inefficient because pumps running at 100% are using most of their energy to achieve the last 30% of the motor curve. Also, when the amount of water the pump is able to move is restricted, it works harder, uses more energy and reduces its effective life.

State of the Art VFD and Computer Optimizing Systems

To avoid wasting this energy we use Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) on our air conditioning pumps and fans. A VFD will provide the right amount of electricity so the motor can operate in the most efficient manner. It's not working harder just smarter.

We're also cutting energy usage on the cooling fans on our water chillers. They used to be run by a sensor that would turn them on or off at a certain water temperature. This meant that the motors were constantly cycling on and off. A large amount of current is required for a startup and as the motor ran a full capacity it was wasting half of its input energy.

Now our building computer monitors the water temperature. And by using VFD's to control the speed of the fans, they run efficiently all the time, avoiding the startup draw and doing a better job of maintaining a constant temperature. Again, this saves money on power cost and on equipment wear and tear.

4. How Backup Generators Can Do Better on Their Tests

Every Data Center has to have backup power generators, which run on natural gas or diesel, and these generators must be tested on a regular basis to make sure they're fully functional should a catastrophic power outage occur. But until recently, all the electricity created by the generators was wasted. We test our backup generators "under load," meaning we actually run our Data Center on the power they generate. This not only saves electricity but give us a better idea of how they perform in a real power emergency. The generator manufacturers recommend testing them under load but few Data Centers choose to do this. We save 250 gallons of diesel per month from needless exhaust into the environment – or 3000 gallons per year.

5. Newer Computers Use Less Energy

The Hinkle Benchmark

Older computers aren't just slower; they use significantly more energy to do the same amount of processing when compared to a newer CPU. We wanted to know how much better we could do in this area so we've developed a metric to measure this use of power relative to the amount of CPU power over the entire data center. We are making it public domain for anyone to use.

We call it the Hinkle Benchmark and we are posting it on our site to show our current metric. We encourage all other providers to be transparent and post their results as well. We don't think we will be the leader in this benchmark but we are focused on improving our number so that we become one of the best.

The benchmark is calculated by summing all of servers' Passmark score/watts used per chip and then dividing this number by the total number of servers. The resulting metric will give an indication of the relative use of power compared to the overall delivery of computational power.

Consumers will want to look at their provider's score and hopefully choose a Data Center that is committed to improving in this area.
 

6. Cutting Needless Packaging by Up to 66%

Because we're constantly upgrading, we receive a steady stream of new equipment and supplies. Unfortunately, it's not readily recyclable in most areas and a huge amount of "filler" ends up in landfills. To cut down on needless packing materials, we've requested that our suppliers ship our new equipment to us in bulk packaging when possible.

We've also made the switch to Gaylord boxes, which allow us to receive up to 20 servers on pallet in a single box with packaging inside the box. This cuts the packaging waste by about 2/3rds

7. Recycling Just About Everything

We recycle all of our cardboard, metals and our old computers. Nothing goes to landfills except non recyclable garbage.

We're serious about our commitment to the environment. As a customer, you can be sure that we're doing our best to be Atlanta's least wasteful, most energy efficient Data Center.