Analysis of Anthropogenic Waste Heat Emission from an Academic Data Center

Abstract

The rapid growth in data transmission and storage over the last decade has energy and environmental implications. While there has been much interest and discussion on emission and reuse of waste heat in commercial and large-scale data centers, very few studies have considered opportunities in academic or small-scale data centers. This study developed an analysis framework to estimate energy efficiency, determine quality and quantity of waste heat from a typical academic data center. A CFD model was developed to simulate and predict the temperature distribution for a typical academic server room and for a server room modified with a hot air containment system. Compared to the open-aisle configuration, the improved configuration resulted in a two-times increase in warm return air temperature (to 46 °C) and a five-times increase in energy (to 1367 MWh), which may change the decision to reuse the waste heat instead of discharging it to the environment.

Keywords: anthropogenic waste heat, waste heat reuse, energy efficiency, cooling efficiency, academic data center