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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFacebook’s 2018 cooling design could make more data-center sites practical, but it did not make every climate suitable. Called StatePoint Liquid Cooling (SPLC), the system uses outside air to cool water, then uses that water to cool the isolated air loop serving servers. The approach was designed for locations where direct outside-air cooling posed problems because of pollution, dust, salt, or high humidity.
Facebook said testing indicated water-use reductions of more than 20% in hot, humid climates and almost 90% in cooler climates compared with its earlier indirect-cooling systems. Those figures were company-reported projections, not independently audited fleet-wide results.
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The problem Facebook was trying to solve
Facebook had historically favored outside-air cooling because it can reduce dependence on compressor-based refrigeration. In suitable conditions, outdoor air can be filtered, evaporatively cooled, and delivered to the data-center space. That can be efficient, particularly where the climate supports economization.
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Traditional indirect cooling addresses the contamination issue by separating the outdoor and indoor air streams. However, Facebook said its earlier indirect design used more water than it wanted in some conditions. SPLC was intended to preserve the efficiency benefits of evaporative heat rejection while keeping outdoor air away from the servers.
What Facebook announced in 2018
Facebook announced SPLC on June 5, 2018, after working with Nortek Air Solutions from 2015 onward. Contemporary reporting said Nortek owned the SPLC patent. Facebook described the system as an option for future data centers where site conditions made direct cooling unsuitable.
The announcement did not mean that Facebook had adopted one universal cooling design. Its engineers continued to evaluate cooling architecture on a site-by-site basis, considering climate, air quality, salinity, water availability, and other infrastructure constraints. At the time, Facebook said indirect cooling was used at two locations worldwide and was expected to remain a small part of its overall fleet, although that share could grow where commercially justified.
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SPLC is an indirect evaporative cooling system. Despite the word “liquid,” it is not direct-to-chip cooling or immersion cooling. In the 2018 design, water cools the processed air, and that air then cools the IT equipment.
- Outside air enters rooftop equipment. The outdoor air is used on the heat-rejection side of the system rather than being delivered directly into the server room.
- A membrane-based liquid-to-air energy exchanger transfers cooling. The exchanger uses a membrane separation layer to allow heat and moisture transfer while keeping the relevant air and water streams separated.
- The water loop is cooled. Outside air and evaporative processes remove heat from the water.
- Cooled water travels indoors. The water is sent to fan-coil-wall units serving the data-center air loop.
- The indoor air is cooled without direct outdoor-air delivery. The processed indoor air circulates through the facility, absorbs heat from the servers, and returns warmer to the cooling equipment.
- The water returns for recooling and reuse. The warmer water is sent back to the rooftop equipment.
The simplified path is:
Outside air → membrane exchanger → cooled-water loop → fan-coil wall → isolated server air loop
That differs from a more direct arrangement:
Outside air → evaporative cooling → indoor air loop
The distinction matters. SPLC isolates the IT air environment, but it does not eliminate the need to manage the outdoor-side equipment, which still faces dust, corrosive compounds, smoke, and salt.
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How SPLC differed from Facebook’s earlier indirect design
Facebook’s earlier indirect arrangement used two air loops. One outdoor-air loop was cooled through evaporation. A separate recirculating indoor loop then used that cooled air to remove heat from the data center.
SPLC inserted a processed-water loop between the two environments. Instead of using cooled outdoor air to cool the indoor air loop, outside air produced chilled water, and that water cooled the indoor air through fan-coil-wall units.
This additional loop offered two intended benefits: greater separation between contaminated outdoor air and the server environment, and lower water consumption than Facebook’s prior indirect approach in the climates it tested.
The three operating modes
Facebook described three operating modes that change with outdoor conditions:
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1. Low outdoor-temperature mode
When the outdoor temperature is sufficiently low, the system can use cool outside air to produce cold water with minimal energy and water use. This is the operating condition most favorable to efficient heat rejection.
2. Adiabatic mode
As outdoor temperatures rise, the system uses an adiabatic process to cool incoming air before it reaches the recovery coil. Evaporation lowers the air temperature, improving the conditions for cooling the water.
3. Super-evaporative mode
In hot and humid conditions, a precooling coil reduces the outdoor-air temperature before that air is used to produce cold water. This mode is intended to extend the system’s useful operating range when ambient conditions are less favorable.
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The important engineering point is that SPLC is not equally efficient in every weather condition. Its controls select among modes, and the resulting energy and water performance depends on temperature, humidity, water quality, and the required server inlet conditions.
Why the design could expand site options
SPLC potentially widens the pool of viable locations in several ways:
- It isolates the server air loop. Outdoor contaminants do not have to be delivered directly into the IT space.
- It retains evaporative heat rejection. The facility can use outdoor conditions to reject heat without relying entirely on mechanical refrigeration.
- It addresses more varied climates. Multiple operating modes allow the system to respond to cool, warm, hot, and humid conditions.
- It may reduce water use relative to older indirect systems. That can improve the feasibility of indirect cooling where water is constrained but not completely unavailable.
- It can accommodate air-cooled IT equipment. The architecture remains relevant to facilities where server heat is ultimately removed through the room air loop.
“More locations” should therefore be read as “more potentially feasible locations,” not as a claim that Facebook could build a data center anywhere. Climate, water, contamination, power, permitting, structural, and maintenance constraints still determine whether a site works.
What the water-saving figures actually mean
Facebook said testing indicated that SPLC could reduce water use by more than 20% in hot, humid climates and by almost 90% in cooler climates compared with its previous indirect-cooling systems. The figures came from Facebook’s testing and were presented as anticipated reductions.
They should not be interpreted as:
- a guarantee for every site;
- a reduction to zero water consumption;
- a comparison with every available cooling technology; or
- independently validated, fleet-wide operational performance.
Evaporative systems consume water by design. A proper site comparison would use annual water consumption, seasonal weather data, water treatment and blowdown requirements, cooling-load profile, and the facility’s redundancy strategy. A percentage improvement against an older design is useful, but it is not the same as a universal water-use specification.
Engineering trade-offs and failure considerations
Water use is reduced, not eliminated
SPLC may improve water efficiency, but it still requires water for evaporative processes. A water-stressed site must evaluate supply reliability, drought restrictions, water pricing, treatment, blowdown, and local permitting.
Humidity remains important
Hot, humid air has less evaporative cooling potential than dry air. The system may spend more time in its super-evaporative mode or require additional mechanical assistance. Results from a cool climate should not be transferred directly to a tropical or coastal site.
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Outdoor contamination is still an equipment problem
Separating the indoor air loop protects the IT environment from direct outdoor exposure, but rooftop equipment remains exposed. Filter loading, coil fouling, corrosion, membrane degradation, pressure drop, and higher fan energy are possible concerns in polluted, dusty, or salty locations.
The water loop adds complexity
Compared with a simpler direct-air design, an SPLC-like system adds pumps, piping, heat exchangers, water treatment, monitoring, controls, leak detection, and additional failure modes. Operators must define how the facility responds to a failed rooftop unit, pump, exchanger, control system, or water-quality excursion.
Cold climates require freeze protection
“Cooler” does not automatically mean easier. External coils, piping, pumps, and water systems may require freeze protection, controls, glycol or other design measures, and recovery procedures for cold-weather events.
Capital cost and space are site-specific
Rooftop equipment, structural loading, water distribution, fan-coil walls, redundancy, service access, and backup cooling all affect the building design. The 2018 sources did not disclose SPLC capital cost, operating cost, or maintenance cost, so those figures should not be assumed.
SPLC compared with other cooling approaches
| Approach | How it works | What it primarily solves |
|---|---|---|
| Direct outside-air or evaporative cooling | Outdoor air is conditioned and delivered into the IT environment. | Efficient cooling where outdoor air quality and climate are favorable. |
| Conventional indirect evaporative cooling | Outdoor and indoor air loops remain separate, with heat transferred between them. | Reduced contamination exposure while retaining economization. |
| SPLC | Outside air cools water; water cools the isolated indoor air loop. | Indirect cooling with an intended improvement in water efficiency and site flexibility. |
| Mechanical chilled-water cooling | Refrigeration chillers produce chilled water for air-handling equipment. | Precise cooling across a broad range of outdoor conditions, usually with greater mechanical energy demand. |
| Direct-to-chip liquid cooling | Cold plates or similar devices transfer heat directly from processors. | High-density CPU and GPU workloads. |
| Rear-door heat exchangers | A liquid-cooled door removes heat from server exhaust air. | Higher rack densities without changing every server’s internal cooling design. |
| Immersion cooling | Servers or components are immersed in a specialized dielectric fluid. | Very high-density workloads and specialized thermal management. |
These technologies are not interchangeable. SPLC cools air before it reaches servers. It should not be presented as a direct liquid-cooling solution for modern high-density GPU clusters.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A practical site-selection framework
An operator evaluating SPLC-like indirect evaporative cooling should begin with the site, not the equipment brochure. Key inputs include:
- Climate: dry-bulb temperature, wet-bulb temperature, relative humidity, seasonal extremes, and freeze events.
- Air quality: particulate concentration, industrial pollutants, smoke exposure, airborne salt, and corrosion risk.
- Water: annual availability, quality, treatment requirements, drought restrictions, cost, and discharge rules.
- IT workload: total load, rack density, air-cooling requirements, and expected transition to direct liquid cooling.
- Energy: electricity price, grid carbon intensity, peak demand charges, and backup-generation constraints.
- Resilience: N+1 or 2N equipment strategy, mechanical-cooling fallback, leak detection, and mode-change behavior.
- Operations: local service capability, filter replacement, water treatment, corrosion inspection, and spare-parts access.
- Building design: rooftop loading, piping routes, equipment footprint, maintenance access, and fire and water-management requirements.
The most useful comparison is a whole-life model that includes water, energy, construction, maintenance, downtime risk, and future workload density—not simply a headline percentage for water savings.
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What is known about deployment after the announcement?
The 2018 reporting explains the design, Facebook’s testing, and its intention to use SPLC where appropriate. It does not establish the exact test sites, test duration, baseline water figures, seasonalized PUE or WUE results, capital cost, maintenance cost, or the number of facilities that ultimately adopted the technology.
Facebook is now part of Meta. Meta’s current sustainability materials continue to emphasize data-center efficiency, water stewardship, renewable-energy matching, and site-specific operational solutions. However, those materials do not establish how widely SPLC itself is deployed in 2026 or whether it remains a major part of Meta’s cooling architecture. Any claim about current fleet-wide use would therefore require later deployment evidence.
The bottom line
Facebook’s SPLC design expanded the menu of cooling options for data-center developers. By using outside air to cool water—and that water to cool an isolated server air loop—it could reduce contamination exposure and improve water efficiency compared with Facebook’s earlier indirect design.
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But SPLC did not remove the fundamental constraints of data-center siting. It still depends on climate, water, equipment maintenance, redundancy, and building infrastructure. The reported savings were Facebook’s testing-based projections, and the available material does not prove how broadly the design was deployed or how it performs against current high-density liquid-cooling systems.
For a modern project, SPLC is best understood as a site-specific indirect evaporative architecture: potentially valuable where direct outside-air cooling is unsuitable, but not a universal replacement for mechanical, direct-to-chip, rear-door, or immersion cooling.
Read the contemporaneous technical reporting on Facebook’s SPLC announcement, and consult Meta’s current data-center sustainability materials for the broader corporate context.
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