HP's Wynyard finally Open

HP's wind-cooled Wynyard has finally been finished and offers other opportunistic data center companies a glimpse at what is possible. The facility is approximately 360000 square feet of space comprising of four data halls with enough spare room to create another four more data halls according to demand.

The Wynyard takes in the cool air, filters it accordingly and collects it in the management system and is then forced over the front of the server racks before it is exhausted. The result is a hall with a constant temperature of 24C. When the winds become even colder than usual, the exhausted heat is mixed with the outside air to maintain temperatures.

With a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.2 PUE or for every 1.2 watt used to power the equipment, 1 watt is used for cooling, the Wynyard data center is currently HP's most efficient data center. Most conventional data centers have PUE rating of 2.0 or higher while new more energy-efficient data centers have a PUE rating of 1.5 and below.

In addition to a power savings of £2.6 million annually the data center will also collect rainwater to help control humidity.