If you manage or own a data center, you must learn to calculate how much power it uses. If you underestimate this calculation, you’ll risk not supplying enough power for your data center. If you overestimate it, you could blow out your servers. Both situations can cause downtime. We’ll show you how to calculate server rack power consumption below.
Taking Inventory and Various Variables
Measure your facility’s square footage, and learn each server’s power supply in watts. You’ll also have to figure out how much power your facility uses in voltage. Determine how many racks you have in your server room and how many servers they hold. Finally, establish your critical load by the number of devices you have and how much power they use. Know their voltage requirements and power ratings. Once you have all this information, you’re ready for the next step to measure your average server rack power consumption.
Make Your Calculations
The first calculation you’ll need is how many amps to use per server. The best way to find this value is to divide your server’s power supply, or server watts, by your facility power (VAC). Then, calculate the maximum kW per rack you will use. Divide your floor space each rack fills into square feet based on their aisle arrangement.
Finally, you need to figure out the power supply of the servers in your data center. Determine how many server watts each server will use, and divide that number by 1,000 to find the kW per server. Then, multiply that by the number of servers per rack.
Further Estimates
You’ll need to calculate the total number of kilowatts for the facility. Complete the following equation: Multiply the number of servers per rack by the kW per server to find the watts per square foot in your server room. Multiply the total kW by 1,000 to calculate the total watts per square foot.
Now that you’ve made all these calculations, you know how to calculate server rack consumption in your data center! Check out our Titan DT network enclosures at AMCO Enclosures for your servers. Contact us with any questions, and we’ll gladly answer.