Data Center Power Series - Part 2 October 2009

Voltage, Watts, and BTU Calculations

Data center power and cooling calculations, while not the most stimulating of conversation
topics outside of the IT crowd, is an important and often discussed component of data center
design, efficiency, and scalability. The purpose of this whitepaper is to provide a clear and
concise guide to the data points and calculations needed for determining and understanding
the relationship of Voltage, Amps, Watts, and BTUs. With a few basic formulas and an
understanding of the data needed to perform the calculations, you can ensure an efficient and
functional data center implementation.
♦ Start With The Correct Data

Before performing any calculations, it is critical to determine the correct input data. For the
purposes of this document, let’s assume we are adding equipment to an existing data center
environment and need to calculate the power and cooling requirements to determine if our
data center has sufficient cooling capacity, typically expressed as Tons of Cooling.

To calculate the cooling requirements we first need to lookup the environmental specifications
(not the power supply wattage rating) for the devices to be installed and determine the
expected operating Amps for the devices at the Voltage being supplied to them. Using Voltage
and Amps we will calculate the output Watts as a measure of heat energy to calculate cooling
requirements using the formula Volts x Amps = Watts.

Important Note: Voltage is inversely proportional to Amps, therefore, a

device running at 240 Volts may operate at 2 Amps, while the same device
running at 120 Volts would operate at 4 Amps. The resulting calculated Watts
Output value is the same ⇒ 240V x 2A = 480W or 120V x 4A = 480W.
In our data center scenario, we’ve determined that the highest voltage our servers and network
switches are both capable of running at is 240 Volts A/C. Since higher voltage is more efficient
in terms of data center power delivery, we will
Figure 1
supply 240 Volts A/C to our new racks. (For more
on power selection and efficiency, including the
advantages of 240V over 208V, see Part 1 of this
series titled, Data Center Power and Cooling Series
- Part 1 - Choosing the Right Voltage.)

Examining the spec sheets we find that our servers

operate at 2.375 Amps and our network switches
at 0.700 Amps when running at 240 Volts A/C. In
our scenario, we will be adding 20 4-post racks in 4
rows of 5 racks each in a hot aisle/cold aisle
configuration (see Figure 1) and will populate the
racks with 400 2U servers and 40 1U 24-port
network switches. Equipment is densely
distributed with 20 servers per rack and 2
redundant network switches (rear mounted) per
rack.

Using standard conversion equations (Watts x 3.41 = BTU/Hr) and (BTU/Hr / 12,000 = Tons of
Cooling) we can calculate the amount of cooling required for our environment.
Now we can calculate total Amps required per Rack, and total Watts for the cooling calculation.

Final Calculations
Amps Per Rack Calculations
Server Amps per Rack
20 Servers x 2.375A each = 47.5 Amps

Switch Amps per Rack

2 Switches x 0.700A each = 1.400 Amps

Total ⇒ 47.5A + 1.4A = 48.9 Amps per Rack **

Minimum Cooling Requirement Calculations

Total Amps (# devices x actual Amps = Total Amps)
(400 Servers x 2.375A) + (40 Switches x 0.700A) = 978 Total Amps

Total Watts Output (Volts x Amps = Watts)

240 Volts x 978 Total Amps = 234,720 Total Watts

Total BTU/Hr (Watts x 3.41= BTU/Hr)

234,720 x 3.41 = 800,395.2 Total BTU/Hr Output Heat Energy

Total Cooling in Tons (BTU/Hr / 12,000 = Tons Cooling)

800,395.2 / 12,000 = 66.7 Tons Cooling Required **

An easy to use online calculator can be found at

www.usdatacenterlist.com!
** In an actual data center scenario, we would determine the total Amps required per rack and
then employ a calculation to prevent over drawing Amps on the circuit during power spikes
such as at server startup times. Using the 80% rule for data center power utilization and
assuming staged startup cycles for the servers to avoid excessive amperage draw, 60 Amps per
rack should be sufficient in the above example ⇒ 60A x 80% = 48A > 47.5. In many cases, data
centers use the maximum available Amps value (60A in this case) to calculate cooling
requirements and thereby provide a buffer zone for cooling load spikes as well.

♦ Conclusion
Now we have the data needed to provision appropriate circuits to the racks to power the
planned equipment expansion project and the cooling requirements for the new equipment.
The next step is to evaluation current data center cooling to determine if the new equipment
will fit within the existing cooling capacity. If the current data center cooling capacity falls short
of our needs in the planned deployment area, we will need to provision additional cooling prior
to implementation.

Interesting Fact: In terms of cooling, a Ton correlates to the amount of heat energy required to
melt one ton of ice at 32 degrees Fahrenheit in one hour.
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Upcoming whitepapers in this series:

A Guide to Electrical Connectors

Watts per Square Foot? What?

*Disclaimer

The opinions, suggestions, recommendations and data expressed here are strictly the opinion and observations of the
author and presenter.

The statements, conclusions, opinions, and practices shown or discussed do not in any way represent the
endorsement of or approval for use by any affiliated or publishing organization.

Use of any design practices or data discussed or identified in this presentation is at the risk of the user and should be
reviewed by your own engineering staff or professional consultants prior to use.

About the Author

Don Small is a 20 year veteran of the IT and Operations service delivery

field. Don has built Managed Services organizations that support 100's of
customers worldwide including Fortune 500, government, and high
security, regulated industries. Currently Don Small holds the position of
Chief Operations Officer for SilverBack Migration Solutions, Inc.