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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchReduce data center cooling costs in sequence: measure the facility and IT load, correct airflow problems, tune controls within the installed equipment’s thermal limits, and then assess economizers or liquid cooling against the site’s climate, density, water strategy, and reliability requirements. Validate each change with comparable energy, environmental, and operational data. The right solution is site-specific; no single cooling design is most efficient in every scenario.
Start with a baseline that can show whether a change worked
Before changing setpoints or investing in new plant equipment, collect data over representative operating periods. A baseline makes it possible to separate the effect of a cooling change from differences in IT workload, weather, or operating conditions.
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Record energy, conditions, and reliability together
Where the facility’s metering allows, record total facility energy, IT equipment energy, cooling-plant energy, IT load, water use, equipment-inlet temperature and humidity, fan and pump behavior, alarms, and relevant redundancy events. Note the period, weather, workload, and operating configuration associated with each reading. Use like-for-like periods for before-and-after comparisons.
The U.S. Department of Energy defines power usage effectiveness (PUE) as total facility energy divided by IT equipment energy. It indicates facility overhead relative to IT energy, but a lower PUE by itself does not prove that total energy use or cost fell: changes in IT energy can move the ratio. Keep absolute facility and cooling energy visible alongside PUE. Electricity tariffs and water costs also vary by site, so energy ratios alone do not establish a project’s bill savings.
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Use each metric to answer a different question
| Measure | What it helps you assess | What it cannot establish alone |
|---|---|---|
| PUE | Total facility energy relative to IT equipment energy. | Whether absolute facility energy, cost, or workload efficiency improved. |
| Absolute facility and cooling energy | Whether electricity use changed over comparable periods. | Whether the change preserved thermal compliance or reliability. |
| Water use and WUE | Water-resource implications of the cooling approach. The current ASHRAE/PNNL/NEMA framework identifies WUE among useful performance indicators. | Whether an approach is viable without considering local water conditions, energy, and operating requirements. |
| Inlet conditions, alarms, uptime, and redundancy performance | Whether equipment remains within its thermal operating envelope and the cooling system responds safely to faults or transitions. | Whether energy or water use improved. |
DOE/FEMP’s 2019 guidance described average-efficiency data centers as having a PUE of 2.0 and highly efficient facilities as approaching the theoretical minimum of 1.0. Treat those as contextual statements from that guidance, not universal current targets for every facility or a substitute for a site-specific baseline.
Fix airflow before replacing major equipment
Cooling efficiency depends on where supply air goes and how server exhaust returns to the cooling system. When hot exhaust recirculates into equipment inlets, or cold supply air bypasses the IT load, operators may need more fan or cooling capacity than the useful heat removal requires. An airflow inspection can identify correctable problems without committing first to a major plant project.
Inspect the rack and room air path
- Look for open rack spaces where exhaust can return through unused openings; use blanking panels where the rack design supports them.
- Check cable openings and other gaps that let air bypass its intended route.
- Review perforated-tile placement and supply-air delivery for areas where supply air misses the equipment or mixes with exhaust.
- Look for hot-air recirculation and unintended supply/exhaust mixing around rows, racks, and containment boundaries.
- Check whether containment and barriers form a coherent airflow plan for the room and rack layout rather than obstructing intended supply or return paths.
ENERGY STAR recommends curtains or Plexiglas panels to limit mixing between cold supply air and hot server exhaust. It reports a DOE estimate of 20% to 25% lower fan energy when blanking panels are combined with containment; the publication year is not stated on the ENERGY STAR page. This is an estimate for the combined measure and fan energy—not a guaranteed result for standalone panels, total cooling energy, or the facility’s bill. Measure the site’s actual fan behavior and energy after installation.
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Coordinate airflow work with the building and rack layout
For construction, renovation, or a room reconfiguration, treat containment, barriers, rack openings, cable routes, and supply-air distribution as connected design decisions. A panel or barrier that blocks mixing in one location can still leave bypass or recirculation elsewhere. Confirm that the completed layout supports the intended air path and that access for maintenance and safe operation remains practical. Validate the installed arrangement under operating conditions rather than assuming a drawing or isolated component will deliver the expected result.
Tune setpoints and controls without leaving the IT thermal envelope
After addressing avoidable mixing and bypass, assess whether the cooling plant is operating more conservatively than the installed IT equipment and system design require. DOE/FEMP identifies higher chilled-water temperatures and reduced airflow as possible routes to chiller energy savings when the system is suited to those changes. Neither adjustment is a universal setting: the acceptable operating range depends on the equipment, cooling architecture, and actual conditions at IT inlets.
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Review the control points as a system
Work through supply-air and chilled-water setpoints, fan and pump speeds, and control sequences together. Compare proposed settings with server inlet readings, equipment documentation, alarm thresholds, and the facility’s redundancy design. A change that reduces fan or compressor work must not cause inlet conditions to move outside equipment limits or leave the system unable to respond to a load increase or component fault.
Use qualified facilities engineers to assess setpoint limits, alarm behavior, available redundant capacity, and seasonal transitions. The current ASHRAE/PNNL/NEMA framework connects efficiency with thermal management and reliability; it does not support treating energy reduction as a reason to disregard equipment limits. Do not assume one temperature target works for every server generation, workload, or cooling architecture.
Make adjustments observable and reversible
- Document the existing control sequence, operating setpoints, inlet conditions, alarms, and redundancy status.
- Change a limited set of controls at a time so that operators can identify which adjustment affected conditions or energy use.
- Trend the same variables used for the baseline, including inlet conditions, fan and pump behavior, cooling energy, and alarms.
- Check behavior across relevant load and outdoor-condition changes, not only at the moment of adjustment.
- Restore the previous settings or use the approved fallback sequence if conditions approach equipment limits, alarms emerge, or redundancy is impaired.
Continuous availability depends on controls that respond to variable outdoor conditions and IT load while preserving safe operation. A lower setpoint or airflow rate is not a saving if it creates a thermal or reliability risk.
Assess whether a waterside economizer fits the site
A waterside economizer can reduce or bypass chiller operation when outdoor conditions and the plant configuration allow a cooling tower to cool the chilled-water loop through a heat exchanger. In suitable conditions, this displaces some compressor work. The number of useful operating hours and the net result depend on climate, heat-rejection design, controls, water treatment and use, and the way the system transitions between operating modes.
ENERGY STAR says a water-side economizer can reduce the cost of chilled water by up to 70%; the page does not state a publication year. “Up to” is important: this is an upper-bound claim about chilled-water cost, not a typical or guaranteed reduction in total facility energy or expense. Whether it applies to a particular facility depends on its design and operating conditions.
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Screen the project before changing the plant
- Climate and hours: Estimate when local outdoor conditions support economizer operation and how much chiller use could actually be displaced.
- Plant configuration: Confirm that the heat exchanger, cooling tower, chilled-water loop, and existing controls can operate together as intended.
- Water strategy: Evaluate water consumption, treatment, and local constraints alongside electricity savings; less compressor operation does not by itself establish a net water benefit.
- Controls and transitions: Define how the system moves between economizer and chiller modes, including bypass operation and safe response to changing conditions.
- Reliability architecture: Have qualified engineers review failure states, available redundancy, and how the cooling system maintains service through component or control problems.
ASHRAE’s guidance treats economizer reliability as a design concern and frames efficiency in relation to performance, site, climate, cooling approach, and budget. Evaluate the failure modes and operating sequence before commissioning a change; favorable outdoor conditions alone are not enough to establish that an economizer is suitable.
Consider liquid cooling where rack density warrants it
For high-density computing, including AI and high-performance computing deployments, compare air cooling with direct-to-chip liquid cooling and rear-door heat exchangers. The useful comparison is not simply “air versus liquid”: it is how each option handles the facility’s actual rack load, heat-rejection path, coolant temperatures, water strategy, maintenance capability, and need for resilient service.
ASHRAE’s handbook explains that liquid cooling can reduce heat-transfer approach temperatures and, in suitable configurations, enable more economizer hours than air cooling. The 2026 ASHRAE/PNNL/NEMA framework addresses thermal efficiency and reliability across planning, operation, commissioning, and retrofit. These mechanisms make liquid cooling worth evaluating in the right application, but they do not establish that it always reduces cost or is an appropriate retrofit for a given building.
Compare the practical requirements
| Decision factor | Questions to answer for the facility |
|---|---|
| Rack load and density | What heat load must be removed at each rack, and can the existing air path support it reliably? |
| Cooling configuration | Is direct-to-chip cooling, a rear-door heat exchanger, air cooling, or a combination compatible with the intended IT equipment and room design? |
| Heat rejection | How will heat move from the rack to the facility plant and ultimately outdoors, and what operating conditions does that path require? |
| Water and resources | What water strategy applies, and how should water use be weighed against energy use and local constraints? |
| Operations and serviceability | Can the operations team maintain the equipment, respond to faults, and safely service it within the facility’s practices? |
| Resilience and lifecycle | What fallback arrangements preserve service, and how does the option fit commissioning, retrofit, and long-term reliability needs? |
Require a facility-specific lifecycle assessment before choosing a cooling architecture. The available guidance describes mechanisms and design considerations but does not provide a universal lifecycle-cost comparison that can predict savings for an individual site.
Compare options by total facility impact, not a single headline number
Operational measures such as airflow correction and control tuning are different from capital-intensive changes to plant equipment or cooling architecture. An option should be judged by its energy and water effects, compatibility with the facility, operational demands, and effect on resilience. A ratio, upper-bound savings claim, or improvement in one subsystem cannot answer all of those questions.
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| Option | Potential value | Important conditions to check |
|---|---|---|
| Airflow management and containment | Can limit hot/cold-air mixing and reduce avoidable fan demand where the air path is poorly managed. | Rack and room layout, bypass paths, containment design, and actual fan-energy change. |
| Setpoint and control tuning | May reduce chiller, fan, or pump energy when equipment limits and plant design permit. | IT inlet conditions, documentation, alarms, redundancy, workload, and seasonal response. |
| Waterside economizing | Can displace or unload chiller operation during suitable conditions. | Climate, available hours, plant configuration, water use and treatment, transition logic, and failure modes. |
| Liquid cooling | Can support high-density heat removal and, in suitable configurations, expand economizer opportunities. | Rack load, heat-rejection path, water strategy, serviceability, infrastructure fit, and fallback arrangements. |
For each candidate, ask whether it lowers absolute cooling or facility energy over a comparable period, how it affects water use, whether equipment remains thermally compliant, and whether reliability is maintained during transitions and faults. Evaluate cost using the site’s actual energy and water costs; the cited guidance does not establish a guaranteed payback period.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Commission changes and verify the result
Commissioning is where the intended design and control behavior are checked against real operating conditions. It matters for a new installation, a retrofit, or an operational change because an efficiency opportunity is useful only if it works with the installed equipment and preserves service.
- Define acceptance measures. Set the energy, water, inlet-condition, alarm, and reliability measures that will be reviewed, using the baseline as the reference.
- Confirm the design and limits. Check that equipment documentation, the thermal operating envelope, control logic, and redundancy requirements are reflected in the proposed change.
- Test normal and changing conditions. Observe operation at representative IT loads and outdoor conditions, including transitions between cooling modes where relevant.
- Check fault response and fallback. Verify that operators know how the system responds to control or component problems and that the intended redundancy remains available.
- Compare like with like. Review post-change data against periods with comparable workload and weather, and retain absolute energy and water alongside ratios such as PUE.
If the expected energy reduction is absent, investigate whether the change actually reduced mixing, fan or pump work, or chiller operation; whether the comparison periods had different weather or IT load; and whether control behavior prevented the intended operating mode. If thermal conditions, alarms, or redundancy performance worsen, prioritize safe operation and have qualified engineers review the configuration before continuing.
Read savings estimates in context
The available numbers describe different parts of a cooling system and should not be combined into a forecast. The DOE estimate reported by ENERGY STAR—20% to 25% lower fan energy—applies to blanking panels used with containment and concerns fan energy, not all cooling energy. The separate ENERGY STAR figure of up to 70% concerns chilled-water cost with a water-side economizer. It is an upper-bound statement, not an expected whole-facility saving. Neither figure establishes a project’s payback or guarantees the result at a particular site.
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A practical order of work
- Establish a representative baseline for IT and facility energy, cooling energy, water, inlet conditions, controls, alarms, and reliability.
- Correct airflow bypass, recirculation, open rack spaces, and avoidable supply/exhaust mixing.
- Review control sequences and setpoints against equipment limits and redundancy requirements, then adjust and trend carefully.
- Screen economizers for climate, plant compatibility, water implications, controls, and failure-mode behavior.
- Evaluate liquid cooling where rack density and facility requirements justify comparing its infrastructure and operating needs.
- Commission the chosen change and verify it with comparable data before treating it as a successful saving.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I reduce data center cooling costs without compromising reliability?
Start with a representative baseline of IT and facility energy, cooling energy, water, inlet conditions, controls, alarms, and reliability. Correct avoidable airflow mixing and bypass before changing plant equipment. Then tune setpoints and controls within installed IT limits, and assess economizers or liquid cooling only against the site’s climate, rack density, water strategy, and resilience requirements. Commission the change and compare like-for-like data.
How can I lower data center cooling energy?
Inspect the air path for recirculation, open rack spaces, cable openings, poorly placed supply tiles, and supply/exhaust mixing. Containment and blanking panels may help when they suit the rack and room design. After airflow work, review fan and pump speeds, supply-air and chilled-water setpoints, and control sequences against equipment documentation and inlet readings. Trend energy and thermal conditions to confirm the effect.
Should I raise supply temperatures or reduce airflow to save energy?
Those changes may reduce chiller or fan energy when the installed system and IT equipment are suited to them, but there is no universal target. Check equipment documentation, inlet conditions, alarm thresholds, redundancy, and seasonal behavior with qualified facilities engineers. Make controlled, observable adjustments and revert to the approved fallback if thermal limits, alarms, or redundancy are affected.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsWill a waterside economizer reduce my total cooling bill by 70%?
Not necessarily. ENERGY STAR reports an “up to 70%” reduction in chilled-water cost, not a typical or guaranteed reduction in total facility energy or expense. Climate, useful operating hours, plant configuration, water treatment and use, controls, and transitions affect the result. Validate the actual impact against local energy and water costs.
Is liquid cooling always cheaper than air cooling?
No universal lifecycle-cost comparison in the available guidance establishes that. Liquid cooling can reduce heat-transfer approach temperatures and may enable more economizer hours in suitable configurations, especially for high-density computing. Compare rack load, heat-rejection path, water strategy, maintenance capability, infrastructure fit, and fallback arrangements for the specific facility.
Is a lower PUE proof that a cooling project saved energy?
No. PUE is total facility energy divided by IT equipment energy, so a change in IT energy can move the ratio. Review absolute facility and cooling energy alongside PUE, and compare periods with similar weather and workload. Also track water use and thermal and reliability measures so a ratio does not obscure an operational tradeoff.
The Bottom Line
Reduce cooling costs by measuring first, fixing airflow, tuning controls within equipment limits, and evaluating economizers or liquid cooling against site conditions. Keep absolute energy, water, thermal compliance, and reliability visible together. Treat published savings figures as scoped estimates, then commission and verify every change with comparable operating data.
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