Research on Using the Naturally Cold Air and the Snow for Data Center Air-conditioning, and Humidity Control

Abstract

To lower power consumption has becomes a worldwide concern. It is also becoming a bigger area in Computer Systems, such as reflected by the growing use of software-as-a-service and cloud computing whose market has increased since 2000, at the same time, the number of data centers that accumulates and manages the computer has increased rapidly. Power consumption at data centers is accounts for a big share of the entire IT power usage, and is still rapidly increasing. This research focuses on the air-conditioning that occupies accounts for the biggest portion of electric power consumption by data centers, and proposes to develop a technique to lower the power consumption by applying the natural cool air and the snow for control temperature and humidity. We verify those effectiveness of this approach by the experiment. Furthermore, we also examine the extent to which energy reduction is possible when a data center is located in Hokkaido.