Green Grid

On Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:03:14 -0700 VWWall wrote: | Here's a chance to do some new thinking about power distribution: | | "The Green Grid is a global consortium dedicated to developing and | promoting energy efficiency for data centers and information service | delivery by: | | * Defining meaningful, user-centric models and metrics | * Developing standards, measurement methods, processes and new | technologies to improve performance against the defined metrics | * Promoting the adoption of energy efficient standards, processes, | measurements and technologies." | |

| | "Electricity is being wasted at an alarming rate by most current | servers. A typical 2U server with dual processors runs on a 450W power | supply. Of that, 35 percent (160W) are lost just in the power conversion | process inside the machine. This doesn't just cost money for a bit of | wasted power; it also costs money for the additional cooling required to | keep the datacenter at a constant temperature, and it limits the total | number of servers that can be installed in a datacenter due to power | constraints." | | | | Anybody got any good ideas? Phil has expressed some in the past.

I do not recommend using a dimmer to reduce the energy consumption of your computer.

I believe SMPS power supplies are much more efficient then this.

um... put in more power?

They are indeed.

One thing to bear in mind is that much of the power will be going through two PSUs -- the main one you see at the back of the system, and the low voltage ones on the M/B to generate the 1-2 volts many of today's CPUs actually use. The motherboard ones probably aren't very efficient -- that would be difficult when working at voltage levels which are close to the forward voltage drop of the semiconductors used in the SMPSUs.

Many data centers nowadays are constrained by not being able to get any more power from their supplier, not having space for any more aircon, not being able to take the downtime hit to upgrade the supply infrastructure, etc. There is rapidly increasing demand for processing transactions not just for the cheapest $$$'s, but for the lowest energy consumption.

| Many data centers nowadays are constrained by not being able | to get any more power from their supplier, not having space | for any more aircon, not being able to take the downtime hit | to upgrade the supply infrastructure, etc. There is rapidly | increasing demand for processing transactions not just for | the cheapest $$$'s, but for the lowest energy consumption.

Time to move to Iceland where aircon demands are less and geothermal energy is cheap.

Or move to other places:

"In 2006 American data centers consumed more power than Ameri- can televisions. Google?whose zeal for secrecy is evident here in the data center?s code name, O2 PROJECT?and its rivals now head abroad for cheaper, often dirtier power. Microsoft has announced plans for a data center in Siberia, AT&T has built two in Shanghai, and Dublin has attracted Google and Microsoft. In all three locations, as in the United States, the burning of fossil fuels accounts for a majority of the electricity. Google is negotiating for a new site in Lithuania, disingenuously described as being near a hydroelectric dam. But no matter where the data center is located, Google will be tapping into Lithuania?s power grid, which is 0.5 percent hydroelectric and 78 percent nuclear. As the functions long performed by personal com- puters come to be executed at these far-?ung data centers, the tech- nology industry has rapturously rebranded the Internet as ?the cloud.? The metaphor is apt, both for our foggy notions of a green Web and for the storm that awaits a culture that squanders its resources."