On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Teofilo teofilowiki@gmail.com wrote:
How about moving the servers (5) from Florida to a cold country (Alaska, Canada, Finland, Russia) so that they can be used to heat offices or homes ? It might not be unrealistic as one may read such things as "the solution was to provide nearby homes with our waste heat" (6).
Or Switzerland not only because it's a cold country but in Switzerland it's already in place the idea to use "green energy" with a small additional cost.
In this case the power supplier assure that this energy is produced with zero CO2 emission (i.e. hydroelectric energy).
In my case (I am IT manager) I have provided my data center with a system of air conditioned with "free cooling", in this case when the external temperature is lower than 17 °C, the system of air conditioned is supplied with external air without consumption of energy.
I have the energy costs reduced of 40% (my location in Switzerland has less than 17 °C at least for 50% of total days because the nights in Switzerland are cool). It could be 50% but I reuse the 10% to have "green energy".
In any case the total amount is more than 50% of savings because the hot air is addressed in the offices (only during the Winter and Autumn) and the maintenance of system of air conditioned is drastically reduced with less problem of damage.
At start it's a big cost to have a system of free coling, but after two or three years it's already refunded with the saved money.
Ilario