How Energy Audits Can Improve Your Facility’s Efficiency

Controlling data center costs presents ongoing challenges for facility managers. One of the biggest expenses incurred is power consumption. The need for improving energy efficiency in data center facilities has become a top priority.

One of the smartest steps you can adopt as a data center facility manager to reduce power consumption is to conduct an effective energy audit periodically. An energy audit is nothing but a review of your building’s main power consumption aspects such as IT load, cooling infrastructure, materialistic power losses, and operational power consumption.

The main aim of conducting an energy audit is to quantify Power Usage Effectiveness or PUE. Doing so will give you a clear idea as to where you can reduce wastage, and what steps you need to take to do so. Ideally, energy audits are used to:

· Identify the amount of electricity consumed by specific operational parameters such as IT equipment, HVAC components and UPS systems.

· Categorize equipment or components based on their power consumption figures.

· Help facility managers take clear cut decisions on which components to optimize so as to reduce consumption levels.

The results are quite amazing with firms such as DRT, a digital realty major, reporting savings in the range of $6 to $10 million a year from 2 of its key data centers.

Energy audits are a key element in improving your facility’s power efficiency. Of course, an easier way would be to use a partner for your data center colocation services! Let the partner manage non-core business issues such as efficiency, power consumption and other associated risks.

If you are thinking about an affiliation with such a partner for your business, then drop by at Lifeline Data Centers, where our engineers offer unparalleled storage and facility options coupled with the highest level of efficiency. Visit our website to know more.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.