‘Heat Wheel’ Cools Data Centers, Cuts Energy Bills

Rich Miller writes on Data Center Knowledge about the “heat wheel,” a new approach to data center cooling which Miller says is likely to gain a higher profile from an upcoming demonstration of the technology.

The heat wheel, also known as a rotary heat exchanger or Kyoto Cooling, improves the use of outside air to cool servers in the data center. Instead of introducing outside air directly into the server room, the heat wheel briefly mixes the exterior air and exhaust air to create an “air-to-air” heat exchanger.

Uptime Technology BV of the Netherlands told Miller that, “the inside heat from the IT room is still removed via the heat wheel, but there is minimal air transfer between the ambient and the computer room. This system has all the benefits of Airside Economizing, without the exposures of airside economizing like contamination and humidity control.”

European telecom firm KPN uses the system to cool one of its data centers in the Netherlands. The company says it is possible to use the system for most of the year and that the system has reduced power consumption for cooling by more than 70 percent.

Kenneth Brill, executive director of the Uptime Institute, recently said the most efficient data center is the one that’s not built.