Energy savings of hybrid dew-point evaporative cooler and micro-channel separated heat pipe cooling systems for computer data centers

Abstract The world has entered the Age of Big Data with large data centers consuming large amounts of energy. 30%–50% of the energy delivered to a typical data center is consumed by the space cooling system. Dew-point evaporative coolers and heat pipes both utilizing natural cold resources can significantly reduce these refrigeration costs. This paper presents two hybrid cooling systems combining dew-point evaporative coolers with heat pipes for computing and data center cooling systems. The energy-saving potentials of two these hybrid cooling systems were analysed through calculations with comparisons with a traditional vapour compression refrigeration system. The results show that the average annual coefficients of performance (COP) of the ideal hybrid refrigeration systems are 33 and 34 which leads to annual energy savings of nearly 90% compared with vapour compression refrigeration.