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Andrea Moscheni , Product Manager at Vertiv data centre , thus simplifying the use of flammable fluids . Chilled water systems are one of the first cooling technologies to apply low GWP refrigerants in data centre applications and therefore are an example of a valid alternative for reducing direct environmental impacts .
Reduction of the indirect emissions ( cutting energy consumption ) it remains active in the atmosphere , compared to a base of CO 2
. The lower this metric , the lower the atmospheric impact .
The traditional refrigerants can now be replaced by modern HFO ( hydrofluoro-olefin ) refrigerants , which have a lower GWP . It is expected that this will prevent the emissions of up to 105 million tons of equivalent
CO 2 by 2040 . However , most of these new refrigerants are classified by ASHRAE ( American Society of Heating , Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers ) as mildly flammable , therefore requiring a new design for the cooling system , potentially impacting the broader data centre design .
Reducing carbon footprint also means cutting the electricity consumed by a data centre during its operation . This is where chilled water systems can play a big part . In recent years , they have applied a range of cooling system efficiency improvements that allow a reduction of electricity usage .
For example , in a chilled water system , the chiller compressor is the greatest consumer of electricity and the warmer the external climate , the greater the electricity demand of the compressor .
Recently , there has been an increased use of inverter driven compressors which help to achieve higher efficiency levels , especially at partial loads . Chillers equipped with inverter driven screw compressors , or oil free centrifugal compressors , are now available to drastically cut down electricity consumption compared to the previous technology available .
Chilled water systems offer an excellent solution as the refrigerant is contained within chiller units and , in most applications , these are installed outside of the
Over the past few years , ASHRAE has increased the recommended operating temperature of data centres equipment up to 27OC . This has allowed subsequent
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