Energy saving analysis of indirect evaporative cooling air conditioning for data centres in hot and humid regions

Abstract

Data center is one of the indispensable infrastructures in the modern information society; however, its high energy consumption and carbon emission have become an urgent problem. In order to reduce the large energy consumption of data centers in hot and humid areas due to mechanical cooling and air-conditioning systems, the operation of an indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) air-conditioning system was simulated in a hot and humid area data center based on Matlab and the EnergyPlus platform, and its annual energy consumption was evaluted. The impact of solar-assisted liquid desiccant dehumidifier (LDD) system on the three operation modes and the performance of IEC air-conditioning system were also investigated. The results show that the IEC air-conditioning system can achieve 16.5% annual energy saving intensity compared to a conventional mechanical cooling system, and that the addition of an LDD unit can increase the wet mode operating time of the IEC air-conditioning system by 35.9% and reduce the system energy consumption by 20.1%. Therefore, IEC air-conditioning systems have significant energy-saving advantages in hot and humid data centers and can significantly improve the operational efficiency and sustainability of data center air-conditioning systems.

Keywords

• indirect evaporative cooling
• data centers
• dehumidification
• model simulation
• energy conservation