Temperature and Humidity Sensor Requirements of Data Centers

• Operational Efficiency: Virtually eliminate the need for tedious and costly manual logging 
• Compliance Automation: Respond to virtually any regulatory audit or inspection in a few clicks with our reports section
• Asset Protection: Detect and respond to any temperature excursion that can threaten virtually anything perishable: food, drugs, vaccines, research, etc.

The Temperature and Humidity Sensor Requirements of Data Centers

Of all issues that stress data center owners and managers, the necessity for better energy efficiency is paramount. 

Data centers account for nearly 1 percent of the world’s energy consumption, and this number is expected to grow as more consumers adopt cell phones, cloud storage while more businesses sunset antiquated paper-driven processes for cloud-based solutions. 

In turn, this means this sector is heavily impacted when there is volatility in electricity costs. To this end, there is always a greater emphasis placed on energy efficiency in the data center industry. 

Conversely, authorities the world over are insisting on energy-hungry industries investing more in opportunities that decrease the reliance on fossil fuels. 

Combating climate change and adopting more sustainable technologies has rapidly shifted from a fringe issue to being a primary focus on data centers and other facilities that consume large amounts of power. 

Not to mention those energy solutions which can help cut down greenhouse gas emissions. 

Typically, the IT infrastructure of a data center represents almost 60% of its energy needs. 

So energy efficiency is always a key point to consider and newer equipment usually deliver more energy reduction opportunities. 

Yet, there’s room to achieve greater energy efficiency in the remaining 40% of a data center’s power demands. In this particular context, excellent opportunities are to be had from these facilities’ cooling and air conditioning systems. 

First of all, for IT infrastructure to function at peak performance consistently, temperature and humidity control must be very efficient. 

Currently, 99.999% uptime is the standard for modern data centers. As these data centers take on an even greater role in our economy, the standards for uptime and efficiency only increase. 

This represents yearly downtime of just several minutes. 

This insistence on top performance in the industry is attribed to the value of the data and processes such IT infrastructure routinely handle. Effective energy management is closely tied to the constant and accurate monitoring of data. 

This brings us to the question, in a data center, what are the variables that must be measured, and in which places?

And what role can temperature and humidity monitoring solution play in 

 Well, read on to find out more.

Temperature as a Threat to Efficiency Gains: How monitoring can help save money  

To prevent overheating and potentially catastrophic system failures, cooling and air conditioning systems are essentialin a data center to safely manage the heat created by IT equipment.

So it’s always important to monitor temperature readings in various areas in such a facility.

This includes within 

• In the aisles and racks 
• in the air ducts
• in the ventilation system 
• in cooling system pipes 
• and even the exterior of the facility

The spaces being monitored need to be representative of the whole data center. 

Also, the sensors network should manage to flag any potential cold or hot spot both in real-time and with historical trends to help facility managers improve how they manage these dynamic environments. 

For bigger data facilities, precise monitoring of temperature levels can prove to be tasking since they’re more susceptible to spatial temperature variability. 

In such situations, there will be a need for enough temperature sensors to make sure every server is monitored. 

There is always potential for three-dimensional temperature variability in larger data centers as well because of the placement of servers. With some closer to the cooling units, others farther away, yet others at the bottom of racks and still others higher up.

Another critical item  that needs to be addressed is optimally distributing airflow and cooling all through a server room. One metric that nearly all facilities of this sort have to monitor is known as Delta T. 

Basically, this is the temperature difference between hot and cold aisles within a data center. 

There are 4 delta Ts that must be monitored to make a data center’s cooling operations more efficient.

1. The first is the difference in temperature of the air before and after it enters IT equipment. 
   
2. The second is the difference in temperature of the cooling equipment. 
3. The third is the difference in temperature of the air leaving the coolers and that entering IT equipment. 
4. Lastly, the difference in temperature for air exiting IT equipment and that entering the coolers. 

Data center managers can effortlessly understand the various factors that impact their facilities’ cooling inefficiencies by accurately monitoring these 4 delta T metrics. 

This, in turn, can play a critical role in providing insights into mitigation and improvements that may be achieved to optimize overall data center performance.

In drier climates, heat can be effectively dissipated by means of evaporative cooling. 

In colder climates, direct cooling using dry, cold air is a practical solution. 

However, lately, liquid cooling systems are  in great demand since they eliminate heat more effectively. 

To capitalize on this trend, Sonicu offers a high-quality sensor for taking readings of cooling and heating liquid temperatures. 

This is called an immersion temperature transmitter, which delivers rapid response times, with greater accuracy. 

This sensor is part of Sonicu’s HVAC product lines that ensure extremely precise temperature readings in data centers. 

These sensors are part of Sonicu’s Smart Internet of Things capability, which provides the ability to monitor just about any variable with a commercially available sensor that includes a 420 mA output. 

“Customers rely on Sonicu to capture all sorts of unique yet significant variables like air flow thorugh an HVAC filter, light detection in an animal laboratory and water detection monitoring in a data center,” said Bryan Mitchell, Vice President, Marketing, Sonicu. 

“We take great pride in helping our clients save time and money by leveraging affordable third-party sensors with our cloud-based monitoring solution to help them get alerts to their phone and more easily collect compliance data.”

Best Humidity Monitoring for Data Center Efficiency 

Humidity is yet another issue that adversely impacts  IT equipment in data center. 

To begin with, lower levels of humidity heighten the dangers of static electricity discharge. 

In such circumstances, spray or evaporative humidifiers are normally prescribed.  

Conversely,  elevated levels of humidity often lead to condensation and ultimately, corrosion of metallic equipment. 

In cool climates, the colder ambient air may be used to cool data center equipment. This process is referred to as economization. 

As the relative humidity in the air diminishes when it’s heated and the absolute water content of ambient air may be low, humidity levels in a data center can fall beneath the suitable level. This calls for proper controls to be in place to prevent this occurrence. 

Depending on the location and application of a data center, there are different humidity readings that can be taken. 

For instance, readings of relative humidity and dewpoint may be taken in indoor spaces, ducts, and even the outdoors. 

Alternatively, cooling towers and evaporative humidifiers necessitate wet bulb temperature readings. 

Finally, enthalpy sensors are usually the solution of choice for airside economizers. For those who might be in the dark, enthalpy simply denotes the total heat energy (both sensible and latent heat) that plays a part in thermodynamic changes. 

Such calculated humidity parameters can be accessed conveniently and directly using advanced humidity sensors including those Sonicu offers. 

Dry bulb, single enthalpy, and dual enthalpy are some of the most common sensor configurations for airside economizer control. 

Sonicu’s transmitters are suited for data center applications including air conditioning and economization. These systems can take accurate readings of humidity and temperature, with derived outputs for dewpoint, wet bulb temperature, and enthalpy. 

Additionally,, temperature sensors normally aren't affected by drift. But traditional humidity sensors are. 

Drift in this context is a sensor error that is triggered by changes in temperature. The drift of temperature and humidity sensors is divided into zero drift and temperature drift. These two varieties of drift impact the reading accuracy of sensors.  

To address this issue, humidity sensors now leverage HUMICAP technology to ensure long-term stability and invulnerability to interference like dust or condensation. 

HUMICAP-equipped sensors are now the gold standard in diverse applications where long-term accuracy, reliability, and maintenance-free properties of humidity sensors are required. 

Airflow in ducts lets humidity sensors rapidly react to altering conditions. 

On the other hand, air circulation in rooms along with other interior spaces may be slow. 

This makes some data centers have a preference for using dewpoint temperature as a humidity control metric since it’s not dependent on the sensor’s temperature. Humidity sensors may also be deployed to take readings of differential pressure within ducts and in between hot and cold aisles. 

Not to mention taking readings of exterior meteorological metrics including air pressure, rainfall, wind speed, and direction.  

Outdoor sensors must be positioned in areas where there’s free airflow and away from any surface which may radiate heat and disturb the accuracy of the humidity readings taken. 

Your Affordable Data Center Monitoring Solution: Sonicu 

When compared to the value of the systems and information processed by data centers, the cost of acquiring accurate and stable temperature and humidity monitoring solutions is truly negligible. 

When combined with the financial and environmental energy inefficiency costs, there is always a need for exhaustive monitoring and control solutions that leverage the most accurate and dependable sensors.

Sonicu helps scores of data center clients drive down energy costs while protecting valuable and costly equipment with monitoring solutions that are easy to install and configure and are backed by live U.S. based phone support.