[TriLUG] A rare look inside a Google Datacenter

[Aaron Joyner]

In general, we endeavor to take the most efficient approach possible.
For example, the datacenter in Hamina is actually cooled by raw sea
water, directly from the gulf of Finland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VChOEvKicQQ
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/practical-steps-towards-greener-energy.html

Aaron S. Joyner

On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:20 AM,  <matt at noway2.thruhere.net> wrote:
> What really caught my attention was the picture of their chiller plants.
> On one side you can see the row of split case chillers all tied together
> in a common header, along with their color coding (condenser: green,
> yellow), evaporator (pink, blue).  What I found interesting is the row of
> plate and frame heat exchangers across from them that is also tied into a
> pipe header, with the same color scheme but with more intense colors and
> also pumps on the red lines.  I am curious as to the function of the heat
> exchangers?  Are they using them for hydraulic isolation, conversion from
> glycol to water, or are they using what is commonly called "free cooling"
> where they can use the cooling towers to directly provide cold water
> through the heat exchanger?  Seeing as the one facility was in GA, I doubt
> that they get much of a time period where they could use the atmosphere
> for
> "free" cooling as it requires temperatures of about 45F or less.
>
> Also interesting was the Finland pictures, where such a system could be
> really beneficial.  At that facility, it also looks like they have a power
> plant at the facility too.
>
>> I liked the pretty pictures in Wired, but when I read that Google gives
>> away Gmail for free because they're just so darn energy efficient, I
>> laughed and closed the tab.
>>
>> --bak
>>
>> On Oct 17, 2012, at 7:57 AM, Michael Rothwell <michael at rothwell.us> wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 10:53 AM, Aaron Joyner <aaron at joyner.ws> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In case you missed the media coverage this morning... Google did
>>>> something very unusual today.  They invited Steven Levy (author of "In
>>>> The Plex") and CBS This Morning to the Lenoir Datacenter, and gave
>>>> them a tour of the server floor.  They also published photos of the
>>>> server floor, video off the offices, and Street View imagery that
>>>> allows you to walk right onto the datacenter floor.
>>>>
>
> --
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