“Apple is using solar arrays, including a 100-acre solar energy farm in Maiden, N.C., to help power a data center there,” Patrick Thibodeau reports for Computerworld. “Apple allowed NBC’s Today show inside the facility this week, and during the tour, a reporter asked what the temperature was there. ‘It’s about 103 degrees in here,’ said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environmental initiatives and a former Obama administration EPA chief.”
“What wasn’t explained is that Jackson and the reporter were walking down a hot aisle, and feeling the fan exhaust. The experience might have been different if they had walked down the cold aisle, where the rack fronts face the aisle,” Thibodeau reports. “The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) sets temperature and humidity guidelines for data centers based on what it knows about the equipment inside them. It recommends that data centers operate between 64.4 to 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit.”
“Apple is running near or at the recommended ASHRAE temperature limit. To do so let’s Apple save the most money on energy cost,” Thibodeau reports. “That strategy puts Apple in the forefront of data center operators in terms of temperature limits.”
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