5 Simple Ways to Avoid Energy Waste in Your Data Center

A Checklist

These five measures can save a significant amount of energy and are fairly easily implemented.

Already completed? Review 16 more ways to save energy in the data center.

Data Center Measure	Description	Check if Completed
Raise the temperature!	Generally speaking, most IT equipment can tolerate higher operating temperatures Every 1°F increase in temperature can save 4% to 5% in energy costs.	□
Virtualize servers	Thanks to specialized software, it’s possible to run a number of “virtual servers” on one physical “host” server, resulting in fewer physical servers to power and cool. A university that virtualized just 35 physical servers saved more than $280,000 over 3 years.	□
Identify and remove unused servers	Data center surveys show that up to 30% of servers aren’t doing any useful work, yet they consume electricity 24/7. According to the Uptime Institute, decommissioning a single server can save $500 in energy, $500 in operating system licenses, and $1,500 in hardware maintenance costs annually.	□
Replace standard fans with variable speed fans	Variable speed fans optimize data center cooling and save energy. eBay’s investment in variable speed fan retrofits had a 1.6 year payback.	□
Institute ENERGY STAR purchasing policy	Always purchase of ENERGY STAR certified servers, data storage, networking, and uninterruptible power supplies. ENERGY STAR certified servers can save $60 to $120 annually in electricity.	□