Data Center Power Featured Articles
Data Center Power: LED Displays Outweigh LCDs in Cabinet Power Distribution Units, Says Server Technology
By Ashok Bindra TMCnet Contributor
Power measurement and monitoring is critical to the performance of data centers. Besides helping data center personnel to efficiently utilize the available power and balance the load, it also prevents overloaded circuits in the center. Consequently, more and more data centers managers are opting for these tools to efficiently and effectively manage the power consumption in this environment.
Interestingly, when buying power distribution, measurement and monitoring equipments, the performance and features of the on board current display is the last thing on the minds of the buyers or the IT mangers. So, typically it is not a top priority when choosing such units for the data center. However, one manufacturer that takes this component seriously is Server Technology (News - Alert), a maker of power distribution, measurement and monitoring tools.
Thus, taking a few important specifications into consideration, Server Technology designers have preferred LED displays for their intelligent cabinet power distribution units (CDUs). Hence, all Server Technology CDUs with onboard current monitoring use LED digital displays on the CDU enclosure to report the input current (in Amps) for each phase or branch circuit. Over 25 years of data center power distribution research has shown Server Technology that LED displays offer maximum benefits when it comes to displaying power readings locally. According to the maker, the pros of the LED display vastly outweight the specs of the LCD display.
After evaluating various makes and models of CDUs, Server Technology concluded that LED displays offer wider operating temperature range, more resilience, higher longevity, and better brightness compared to LCD displays. For instance, LEDs operate over -40 °C to +85 °C, while industrial grade LCDs operate from -20 °C to +70 °C. Likewise, LEDs are rated for 100,000 hours of operation as against LCD’s only 50,000 hours. And viewing distance for LEDs is up to 23 feet (7 m), whereas LCDs can be viewed from a distance of up to 10 feet (3 m) only using backlight. By the way, LCD backlights consume a lot of power, another factor favoring LEDs.
Similarly, the viewing angle for LEDs is 60 degrees as opposed to 45 degrees for LCDs. Additionaly, the manufacturer uses high intensity, low current draw LEDs for CDU applications.
Ashok Bindra is a veteran writer and editor with more than 25 years of editorial experience covering RF/wireless technologies, semiconductors and power electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard
Data Center Power Resources
Featured White Papers
This article explores the various monitoring systems typically found within the data center ecosystem and how to navigate getting the required power and environmental information needed to make better decisions within your data center facility.
[Read More]RF Code provides an enterprise class, wire-free sensor solution that is ideal for monitoring in real time the environmental conditions in IT dense areas such as data centers and IT closets.
[Read More]Within enterprise data centers, power used for operating the facility, lighting, running IT loads and cooling is the largest operational expense. Numerous papers and articles have been published by The Green Grid, The Uptime Institute, PG&E, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories and others discussing ways to measure, monitor and increase efficiencies. This paper discusses the effect on efficiency of load balancing across phases in a 3-phase distribution system.
[Read More]