When there’s green in green, go green. In other words, if you can reduce your costs and boost your profits by being environmental friendly, then go for it. Hewlett-Packard (HP), along with Google, IBM, and Microsoft, are finding ways to do just that.
An example for HP is how it’s reducing the costs of running its data centers. Basically, data centers are big buildings crammed full of heat-producing servers. But, these are important heat-producing servers, as they store vital information from any number of other businesses, which HP charges for managing and protecting. Keeping all those servers, and supporting computer equipment cool is a vital and expensive proposition. HP’s solution is a simple one: build data centers where it is cool and windy.
HP’s Wynyard facility, located in Billingham England, is about eight miles inland from the North Sea. Billingham is naturally cool--with temperatures rising above HP’s target temperature of 24C (75 degrees) only 20 hours a year. And the wind off the North Sea is a constant companion. HP captures this cool wind, using eight 2.1-meter (6.9 feet) stainless steel and plastic intake fans. The air is collected in a plenum below the floor of the data center, then pushed up through the floor around the server racks, after which is it exhausted. If it gets too cool inside the facility, the air warmed by the servers is recirculated. This way HP keeps the 360,000-square foot facility’s internal temperature at about 24C.
HP’s design allows it to use only 1 watt of power for cooling and other facility needs for every 1.2 watts used to run its equipment. Using this technology it's estimated that HP will save annually about £2.6 million ($4.16 million) on power at the facility.
Other green tricks HP uses at the Wynyard facility include capturing rainwater, which is then filtered and misted inside to keep the humidity at a required 40 to 60 percent. And lighter color server racks, which reflect more light, and therefore require less internal lighting.
Image Credit: Hewlett-Packard
