WESCO Net, a West Michigan-based leader in managed hosting services, is deploying new energy-efficient infrastructure into its new Muskegon, Michigan datacenter and retrofitting its primary datacenter in Kentwood, MI. The moves come amid steps WESCO Net is taking to lower costs through energy conservation and reduced emissions.
“We’re deploying new equipment cabinet technology at our Muskegon site that will significantly reduce air handler loads and power consumption,” explains Dave Wordhouse, VP Network Technologies. “The new cabinets feature a ducted airflow design with a passive integrated exhaust evacuation system that routes hot air from the computer equipment into the building’s return air system where it can be reused to heat other parts of the structure,” Wordhouse continued.
“The status quo in data centers is to place large chillers in the computer room to cool the exhaust air, where it is routed back to the equipment and chilled again. This is so inefficient. With this new design, the hot exhaust air is not allowed to return to the computer room, instead we recycle it.” Mr. Wordhouse went on to explain the new cabinets were sourced through Chatsworth and only cost fractionally more than standard non-ducted equipment cabinet technology.
At its Kentwood, MI site, WESCO Net also recently installed new redundant chillers for its computer room that feature economizer technology to use outside air for cooling duties when the air temperature falls to a preset level. The new technology reduces power consumption dramatically during colder months compared with operating the compressors in the air handling systems.
Precision computer software controls the systems and provides monitoring and alerting capabilities. Mr. Wordhouse continued, “The new systems are far more efficient, having multiple compressor stages that can be brought online by the computer as conditions in the computer room warrant. With our old systems they were either on or off; now the computer can gradually bring on additional capacity to maintain environmental presets as necessary. Because we can operate most of the time with fewer stages running, we’re seeing greater efficiencies.”