Reducing data-centre energy use is a sequence of engineering decisions, not a single cooling-product choice. Start by removing unnecessary IT load and correcting temperature, humidity and controls; then prevent hot-air recirculation, select air, water or liquid cooling that fits the climate and rack density, recover heat only when a nearby user can take it, and measure energy, water, carbon and thermal performance together. The right design depends on climate, altitude, water availability, equipment requirements, workload and reliability targets.
Use a whole-facility sequence, not a single technology
Cooling often represents a large share of a data centre’s non-IT electricity, but cooling upgrades cannot compensate for avoidable server load, poor controls or blocked airflow. The most dependable sequence is:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Reduce and manage IT demand. Consolidate lightly used systems, improve workload utilization and remove unnecessary power draw.
- Stabilize environmental conditions. Set temperature, humidity and control limits around equipment inlet requirements rather than room comfort.
- Make the airflow path work. Separate supply air from server exhaust and remove physical obstructions.
- Match cooling to the site. Compare air-side or water-side economizing, conventional chilled water and direct liquid cooling against climate, density and water constraints.
- Use waste heat only where it has a real customer. A nearby building or process must need heat at a usable temperature, with backup heat rejection available.
- Measure outcomes continuously. Track facility energy, IT energy, water, carbon, temperatures, humidity and useful computing work.
No design is optimal for every data centre. A solution that performs well in a cool, dry climate may be unsuitable where outdoor air is contaminated, humidity is difficult to control or water is scarce. Treat every benchmark as a design reference, not a guarantee.
Begin with an IT and environmental baseline
Inventory the loads that cooling must serve
Record server, storage and network loads by room, rack and time of day. Include power-conversion losses, UPS operation, lighting and other auxiliary loads. Identify racks with unusually high density, uneven utilization or rapid workload variation. Virtualization, consolidation, scheduling and retirement of idle equipment can reduce both IT electricity and the cooling capacity required to remove its heat.
#1 Best Overall
- Size: Length: 482mm/19 inch; Width: 45mm/1.77 inch; 85mm/3.35 inch; 177.80mm/7 inch; Mount Hole Size: 12mmx 7mm/0.47 inch x 0.27 inch(L*W); Mount Hole Distance: 465mm/18.3 inch; Thickness: 1.2mm/0.05 inch; Package: 2 Set x Blank Panel.
- Efficient Working Supplies: These blank panels can protect the internal equipment from dust and electromagnetic interference, beautify the equipment, organize the cable, and keep your rack clean and tidy.
- Reliable Material: These mount panel spacers are made of metal material, with nice workmanship, the surface is phosphate, electrostatic spraying technology, not easy to rust, and black frosted can be used for a long time.
- Installation: Each cable organizer rack only needs 4 screws and nuts, is easy to install, and only a few minutes can be installed successfully.
- Application: The wire management can be used in various areas to organize fiber optic cables, network cables, patch cables, power cables, and more.
Document the equipment’s inlet-temperature and humidity requirements, approved operating envelope, airflow direction and any nonstandard exhaust arrangement. The applicable manufacturer and equipment-class guidance takes precedence over a generic room set point.
Measure before changing set points
Install or verify calibrated temperature and humidity measurements at representative IT inlets, not just in the return-air stream. Measure conditions at cooling units and in supply and return paths. Retain time-series data so annual energy, thermal excursions and economizer hours can be calculated. Check sensor placement, accuracy, calibration intervals and integration with the building-management system before relying on trends.
Set reliability and operating boundaries
Define the consequences of a failed chiller, pump, fan, cooling tower, control network or heat-recovery customer. Establish alarm thresholds, maintenance bypasses and the maximum rate at which a temperature or humidity set point may change. Efficiency work should not remove the redundancy or maintainability required for the facility’s availability target.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →“Data centers are expensive, so whether you’re in the process of building or renovating one, if you can plan for energy- and water-use efficiencies in advance, you can get the most bang for your buck.” — Kendall Kam, FEMP Energy Program Manager
Design the room so air reaches the equipment
Separate cold supply air from hot exhaust
In a hot-aisle/cold-aisle arrangement, racks draw conditioned air from the cold aisle and discharge exhaust into the hot aisle. Keep rack fronts facing one another in cold aisles and backs facing one another in hot aisles. This prevents exhaust from being drawn into adjacent server intakes and lets return air reach the cooling equipment with less mixing.
Strict hot/cold aisle configurations can increase air-side cooling capacity. Flexible barriers or modular containment can further isolate the two air streams. Containment is not a substitute for balancing airflow: verify that supply volume, return paths and pressure relationships match the installed equipment.
Rank #2
- Specifications: 5 x 19 inches wide * 1U high; 20 x M6 type screws, suitable for standard 19 inches network equipment, cabinets, AV and home theater racks, especially suitable for aviation equipment;
- Thickened steel plate: The panel is made of high-quality cold-rolled steel, The thickness of up to 1.2mm which is much higher than similar products; exquisite workmanship, the surface has undergone deoiling, pickling, phosphating, and electrostatic spraying technology, which can be used for a long time;
- Application: This premium aluminum blank panel is designed for aviation use, it is lightweight, it can protect internal equipment from dust and electromagnetic interference, keep dust and dirt away from racks, beautify equipment, organize cables, and often Clean wiring to keep your rack cleaner and tidy;
- Easy to Install: Only 4 screws and nuts are needed to install this metal panel, which is easy and quick to install; the screws provided are convenient for you to install, no need to buy other accessories.
- Flexible Use: 5 panels can be freely matched with heights such as 1U/2U/3U/4U/5U as needed.
Close bypass and recirculation paths
- Install rack blanking panels in every unused front slot, matched to the rack dimensions. Open slots let cold air bypass servers and pull hot air toward intakes.
- Seal penetrations around cables, pipes and floor openings so supply air does not escape into uncontrolled spaces.
- Keep cable bundles from blocking perforated tiles, grilles or server fans.
- Address racks with side, top or rear exhaust that does not follow the aisle pattern; use directed returns or physical separation where needed.
- Check doors, partition walls and ceiling returns for leaks that short-circuit supply air to return air.
Check raised-floor geometry and cable congestion
Cable congestion in a raised-floor plenum can reduce airflow and create hot spots. For raised-floor installations, DOE guidance identifies an effective clear height of at least 24 inches as a useful design reference. Measure the unobstructed path rather than the nominal floor depth, and inspect underfloor cable trays, power whips and abandoned services. Re-route or support cables so they do not obstruct supply openings.
Outdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchPC Slower Than It Used to Be?
A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Use variable-speed control carefully
When airflow is properly contained and measured, variable-speed fans can reduce fan energy as load falls. Lowering fan speed without confirming rack inlet conditions can create local starvation, so link speed control to differential pressure, airflow and inlet-temperature alarms. Higher return-air temperatures can also extend economizer hours, but only if equipment inlets remain within their approved envelope.
Raise temperatures incrementally within equipment guidance
Cooling less aggressively can save chiller and fan energy, but a room thermostat is not a safe substitute for inlet measurements. DOE’s guide cites the 2021 ASHRAE air-cooling guidance with recommended dry-bulb temperatures of 18–27 °C for A1–A4 equipment classes. Those classes have different and wider allowable ranges. An allowable range is a boundary for equipment functionality, not a promise of long-term reliability under every workload or humidity condition.
- Confirm the equipment class and manufacturer limits for each rack population.
- Map the warmest and coolest inlet locations at current load.
- Increase the supply-air or cooling-water set point in small steps.
- Hold each step long enough to observe steady-state temperatures, humidity, alarms and workload changes.
- Stop or reverse the change if any inlet approaches its limit, condensation risk rises, or redundancy is reduced.
- Record the new set point, weather, IT load and cooling energy so the result can be reproduced.
Do not average away a hot spot. A room-wide average can look acceptable while one rack exceeds its limit because of a blocked tile, missing blanking panel or recirculating exhaust.
Choose economizers according to climate, water and air quality
Air-side economizing
An air-side economizer brings in outdoor air when it is sufficiently cool relative to return air, reducing or bypassing mechanical refrigeration. Suitability depends on annual weather, humidity, smoke and particulate levels, corrosive contaminants, filtration pressure drop, building pressure control and the equipment’s environmental limits.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems- Model annual hours when outdoor air can provide useful cooling, not just the number of cool days.
- Specify filtration and monitor loading; dirty filters increase fan energy and reduce delivered airflow.
- Control humidity and prevent condensation during rapid weather changes.
- Use contaminant monitoring or operating lockouts where dust, salt, pollution or smoke could threaten electronics.
- Provide a mechanical-cooling fallback for unsuitable outdoor conditions and economizer maintenance.
Water-side economizing
A water-side economizer uses cooling-tower capacity through a heat exchanger to cool the chilled-water loop, reducing or bypassing chiller operation when outdoor conditions permit. It requires compatible heat exchangers, pumps, cooling towers, water treatment, controls and piping arrangements. Compare the compressor energy avoided with pump, fan, tower and water-treatment energy.
Rank #3
- [Comprehensive Protection]:Our metal blank panels effectively block dust while enhancing the appearance of your equipment, keeping your cabinet neat and tidy. Whether you're protecting internal equipment or enhancing overall aesthetics, these panels are your ideal choice.
- [Premium Materials]:Made from cold-rolled steel, the surface is treated with phosphating and electrostatic spraying technology to ensure rust-resistance and durability. The black matte finish provides an elegant look while enhancing wear resistance.
- [Easy Installation]:Each panel requires only four screws and nuts for quick installation, taking just a few minutes. We also include cabinet screws, a screwdriver, and cable tie hook and loop to help you organize cables more effortlessly and enhance installation efficiency.
- [Standard Compatibility]:Compatible with standard 19-inch server and network cabinets, available in 1U/2U/4U sizes to flexibly meet different cabinet needs. It fits perfectly whether it's a small cabinet or a large device, ensuring the best user experience.
- [Value Pack]:Enjoy a six-piece value pack including 2x 1U, 2x 2U, and 2x 4U solid blank panels, 24x M6 steel screws, 24x M6 cage nuts,1x screwdriver and 10x cable tie hook and loop. We provide not only high-quality products but also focus on your user experience, offering you exceptional value.
Water-side operation can be attractive where outdoor air is unacceptable but tower conditions are favorable. It also introduces water consumption, plume, chemical-treatment and freeze-protection considerations. Design isolation and bypass arrangements so a fouled heat exchanger or tower failure does not remove the entire cooling path.
Thermal storage
Thermal storage can shift cooling production to cooler, drier periods and reduce peak electrical demand. It is not automatically an energy-saving measure: storage losses, pumping, charging controls, tariff structure and the source of electricity determine the result. Evaluate it with an annual simulation and the facility’s actual load profile.
Use liquid cooling for high-density heat when loops are compatible
Liquid cooling captures heat closer to the source than room-air systems. The main approaches are distinct:
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
| Approach | How heat is captured | Design questions |
|---|---|---|
| Rear-door heat exchanger | A coil on the rack’s exhaust side removes heat before it enters the room. | Can the rack, door, water loop, drip protection and service access support the added equipment? |
| Cold plate | Fluid flows through plates attached directly to high-power chips. | Are processors, manifolds, hoses, pumps, controls and facility water chemistry compatible? |
| Immersion | Electronics sit in a dielectric fluid that absorbs heat. | Are servers, fluid management, maintenance procedures and fire and safety requirements suitable? |
Liquid systems can permit warmer water, reduce server-fan power and make water-side economizing easier. For suitable ASHRAE W-classes, warmer-water operation may enable dry heat rejection, reducing water as well as energy. Actual savings depend on the integrated IT loop, facility loop, heat exchanger approach temperatures, pump power, controls and remaining room-air load.
Integrate, do not bolt on, a liquid loop
Define supply and return temperatures, flow rates, water quality, leak detection, quick-disconnects, isolation valves, filtration and emergency response before selecting equipment. Keep enough air cooling for residual heat from memory, drives, power supplies and non-liquid-cooled devices. Test failure modes such as loss of facility water, pump trip, leak alarm and a sudden reversion to air cooling.
Recover waste heat only when a nearby host can use it
Heat recovery is an energy opportunity, not an automatic benefit. The business case depends on a nearby customer, a useful temperature match, a short connection or district-energy loop, ownership, metering, incentives and a fallback heat-rejection path.
Rank #4
- Eziblank Blanking Panels can be easily installed into square mounting holes of any EIA-310-D compliant 19" server rack to prevent the recirculation of hot exhaust air within server racks.
- The snappable feature of the Eziblank 6-RU Blanking Panels makes them an ideal accessory for data centre operators, allowing separated panels to be installed and reused in different RU heights of unused space.
- Eziblank blanking panels prevent hot exhaust air from mixing with cool intake air, helping to extend the life of IT equipment, conserve energy, and reducing the carbon footprint of data centres.
- The Eziblank 6-RU Blanking Panel is a cutting-edge Australian-made data centre product crafted from high-quality UL94-V0 flame-retardant ABS plastic.
- Each carton contains 10 x 6RU plates, totaling 60RU. Each sheet can be broken down into 6 x 1RU, 2 x 3RU, 3 x 2RU, or 1 x 2RU and 1 x 4RU, offering flexible installation options.
Match temperature and demand
Low-temperature uses such as ventilation-air preheating and domestic or process water heating can offer the greatest practical energy savings. Quantify the host’s hourly and seasonal demand, required supply temperature, return temperature, cleanliness, pressure and continuity requirements. If the host is unavailable, the data centre must still reject heat safely through its normal cooling system.
Build redundancy around the customer
Heat recovery should be isolated from critical cooling. Use bypasses, storage or alternate heat rejection so a school, office, industrial process or district loop outage cannot force an IT shutdown. Meter recovered heat separately from cooling energy and verify that the host actually displaces fuel or electricity rather than merely receiving low-value heat.
Compare options with the same decision axes
Evaluate each concept against the following factors before committing capital:
| Axis | Questions to answer |
|---|---|
| Climate | How many annual hours support air-side or water-side economizing? What are humidity, smoke, dust and corrosive-contaminant conditions? |
| IT density | What are current and planned rack kilowatts, inlet limits and nonstandard exhaust patterns? |
| Energy | How do chiller, fan, pump, cooling-tower and heat-rejection loads change at full and part load? |
| Water | Will towers, treatment, blowdown or dry heat rejection increase or reduce site water use? |
| Reliability | What happens during component failure, maintenance, contamination events, leaks or loss of the heat host? |
| Maintainability | Can technicians isolate, clean, repair and safely work on the system without disrupting IT? |
| Capital and operating cost | What are the installed cost, controls work, replacement cycle, energy cost and water cost under the site’s tariff? |
| Heat reuse | Is a customer close enough, at the right temperature and available for enough hours each year? |
Use benchmarks carefully
Cooling-system efficiency is often expressed in kilowatts per ton of cooling. DOE FEMP’s 2024 guidance lists 0.8 kW/ton as a good-practice benchmark and 0.6 kW/ton as a better benchmark. These are guide benchmarks, not guaranteed performance for every climate, load or plant configuration. State the measurement boundary and operating condition when comparing a design with either figure.
DOE’s guidance also reports a contextual result of 20% less chiller energy when higher chilled-water temperatures and reduced airflow were used in the described setting. That is not a universal savings promise; chiller lift, weather, controls, fan power and IT inlet conditions determine the outcome.
Recommended Free Tools
Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is annual facility energy divided by annual IT-equipment energy. A DOE benchmark table presents standard, good and better PUE values of 1.6, 1.4 and 1.1. A separate DOE page dated 2019 describes average PUE as 2.0. Because those figures come from different editions and contexts, neither should be presented as a current universal industry average. Use the same boundary, meter quality and reporting period when comparing facilities.
Best Value
- Specifications Dimensions: length: 482.6 mm / 19 inches; Width: 44.45 mm / 1.75 inches, 88.9 mm / 3.5 inches, 177.8 mm / 7 inches; Mounting Hole Size: 12 mm x 7 M / 0.47 inches x 0.27 inches; Mounting Hole Spacing: 465 mm / 18.3 inches; Thickness: 1.2 mm / 0.05 inches; Package includes: 2 sets of blank panels; 6 pieces total covering 1 U, 2 U, and 4 U sizes
- Efficient Rack Management: these blank panels protect internal equipment from dust and EMI, improve aesthetics, organize cables, and maintain a clean, professional-looking rack
- Reliable Material: the blank panel rack made from cold rolled steel; Features a rust resistant, matte black powder coating achieved through phosphating and electrostatic spraying for long lasting performance
- Perforated Ventilation Design: the perforated pattern maximizes airflow for optimal cooling within your server rack or network cabinet while maintaining structure and protection
- Wide Application: this versatile cable management system is essential for organizing fiber optic cables, network cables, patch cords, power cables, and more in data centers, server rooms, or network closets
Measure more than PUE
PUE shows infrastructure overhead but says nothing about how much useful computing work the IT load produces or about all environmental impacts. Pair it with:
- Water usage effectiveness (WUE): site water use associated with IT operations, reported with the defined boundary and period.
- Energy reuse effectiveness (ERE): the effect of useful recovered energy on the facility’s energy balance.
- Carbon usage effectiveness (CUE): carbon emissions associated with energy use, using a stated emissions factor and boundary.
- Cooling efficiency: chiller, fan, pump and heat-rejection energy per unit of cooling, with operating conditions recorded.
- Thermal and airflow indicators: inlet-temperature distribution, humidity, pressure, airflow imbalance, hot-spot hours and alarm events.
- IT utilization or work per watt: useful workload delivered for the electricity consumed, so efficiency is not achieved by simply reducing computing output.
Retain annual meter data and trend logs. A monthly PUE value can hide a humid summer, a failed economizer, a seasonal heat-recovery customer or a lightly loaded IT environment.
Implement the work in controlled stages
- Survey the facility. Map racks, airflow directions, cooling units, floor openings, cable congestion, sensors, meters, water systems and redundancy paths.
- Establish the baseline. Capture at least a representative annual cycle where possible, including IT energy, total facility energy, water, temperatures, humidity and cooling-plant loads.
- Fix low-risk airflow defects. Install correctly sized blanking panels, seal penetrations, clear plenums, correct rack orientation and remove obstructions.
- Balance and validate. Commission supply and return airflow, inspect the warmest inlets and confirm that containment does not starve any rack.
- Optimize controls gradually. Test higher supply or chilled-water temperatures, fan-speed resets and economizer sequences with alarms and rollback points.
- Model major alternatives. Compare air-side, water-side, liquid-cooling, storage and heat-recovery concepts using hourly weather, load growth, water and tariff data.
- Commission under failure conditions. Test chiller, pump, fan, tower, control, liquid-loop and heat-host failures without risking production equipment.
- Verify persistence. Review trends, maintenance records, alarms, water treatment, filter loading and annual metrics after handover.
Troubleshoot common failure modes
Hot spots remain after containment
Check blanking panels, tile placement, underfloor obstructions, rack-level airflow, nonstandard exhaust and pressure balance. Do not raise the whole room’s cooling merely to mask one blocked path.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Economizer hours are lower than predicted
Review weather files, humidity lockouts, contaminant events, filter pressure drop, control deadbands and return-air temperature. Confirm that the economizer is enabled when conditions are actually suitable and that mechanical cooling is not running unnecessarily in parallel.
Water use rises after an efficiency project
Separate tower evaporation, blowdown, treatment and leaks in the meter data. Check whether higher heat rejection, poor cycles of concentration or a control fault offset the expected energy benefit. Compare WUE and energy together.
Liquid cooling threatens maintainability
Verify service clearances, isolation valves, leak detection, connector procedures, fluid quality, spare parts and technician training. Retain an air-cooling path for components outside the liquid loop and rehearse a controlled fallback.
Heat recovery has no reliable demand
Recalculate hourly host demand and temperature requirements. If the customer cannot accept heat during critical periods, treat recovery as optional and maintain full-capacity conventional heat rejection.
Final design checklist
- IT utilization and unnecessary load have been addressed before adding cooling capacity.
- Equipment inlet limits, humidity limits and approved temperature classes are documented.
- Hot and cold aisles, rack orientation, blanking panels, seals and cable paths create a continuous airflow path.
- Raised-floor installations provide an effective clear height of at least 24 inches where that design is used, with unobstructed supply paths.
- Economizer feasibility includes climate, humidity, contaminants, filtration, water and controls.
- Liquid cooling includes loop compatibility, leak response, residual air load and failure operation.
- Heat recovery has a nearby host, a useful temperature match, metering and redundant heat rejection.
- Capital and operating costs include pumps, fans, towers, treatment, controls, maintenance and replacement.
- PUE is reported with WUE, ERE, CUE, thermal indicators and a useful-work metric.
- Commissioning, alarms, trend retention and annual verification are funded as part of the project.
The most durable savings come from an integrated building and IT design: efficient workloads reduce the heat to remove; disciplined airflow lets equipment run at safer, warmer conditions; climate-appropriate economizing reduces mechanical refrigeration; liquid systems serve genuinely dense loads; and heat recovery adds value only when a dependable host exists. Keep every change tied to measured inlet conditions, water and energy data, and a tested reliability plan.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
