Particle concentrations in data centers

Journal Article · Mon Apr 07 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Atmospheric Environment (1994)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.03.049· OSTI ID:1826687

Shehabi, Arman ^[1]; Horvath, Arpad ^[2]; Tschudi, William ^[3]; Gadgil, Ashok J. ^[3]; Nazaroff, William W. ^[2]

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1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Cooling buildings with large airflow rates of outside air when temperatures are favorable is an established energy-saving measure. In data centers, this strategy is not widely used, owing to concerns that it would cause increased indoor levels of particles of outdoor origin, which could damage electronic equipment. However, environmental conditions typical of data centers and the associated potential for equipment failure are not well characterized. Here we present the first published measurements of particle concentrations in operating data centers. Indoor and outdoor particle measurements were taken at eight different sites in northern California for particulate matter 0.3–5.0 μm in diameter. One of the data centers has an energy-efficient design that employs outside air for cooling, while the rest use conventional cooling methods. Ratios of measured particle concentrations in the conventional data centers to the corresponding outside concentrations were significantly lower than those typically found in office or residential buildings. Estimates using a material-balance model match well with empirical results, indicating that the dominant particle sources and losses have been identified. Measurements taken at the more energy-efficient site show nearly an order of magnitude increase in particle concentration when ventilation rates were high. The model indicates that this increase may be even higher when including particles smaller than the monitoring-equipment size limitation. Even with the increases, the measured particle concentrations are still below concentration limits recommended in industry standards.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC); Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; PGZ-0601
• OSTI ID: 1826687
• Journal Information: Atmospheric Environment (1994), Vol. 42, Issue 24; ISSN 1352-2310
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
data center
indoor air quality
particulate matter
equipment reliability
energy efficiency
filtration