{"id":13686,"date":"2016-11-04T17:47:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T21:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/ai-helps-data-center-to-stay-cool-and-keeps-energy-bills-low\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T22:11:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T02:11:19","slug":"ai-helps-data-center-to-stay-cool-and-keeps-energy-bills-low","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/ai-helps-data-center-to-stay-cool-and-keeps-energy-bills-low\/","title":{"rendered":"AI helps data center to stay cool and keeps energy bills low"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data center is a facility that centralizes computer servers, storage and networking systems for certain IT needs. <\/span>As the world\u2019s economy shifts further into the digital era, the demand for data centers keep accelerating at a fast pace. In 2006, data centers in the U.S. consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), which is roughly 1.5% of total U.S. electricity consumption. The energy used by data centers was more than doubled between 2000 and 2006. [1] If the energy-efficiency of data centers did not improve, it was predicted that by 2011 the energy consumption of data centers would exceed 100 billion kWh. That would have significant impact on the power grid and power generation as well as increase millions of tons of greenhouse gas emission [2]. The need for more efficient data centers is urgent and it calls for innovative solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately during the past decade all the major companies of data centers worked together to improve the efficiency and in 2014, data centers in the U.S. consumed an estimated of 70 kWh, at growth rate much lower than originally forecasted. Some of successful strategies and best practises include:<\/span><\/p>\n