HVAC and Cloud Computing: More Similar Than You Think
March 26, 2014
Grazed from HPAC. Author: Lawrence Clark.
If you are like me, at some point, you have had a “Microsoft moment” and lost some important document or file on your computer because—in spite of all the warnings—your computer was not backed up properly. Regardless, many of us now have external hard drives and/or some sort of cloud backup.
Until only a few years ago, a lot of us had never heard of cloud computing, and now it is part of our everyday vernacular. While we talk a lot about the carbon footprint associated with HVAC systems and equipment, have you ever thought about the carbon emissions associated with cloud computing? According to IEEE, in 2012, Facebook’s data centers had greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG) of nearly 300,000 mtCO2e—equivalent to almost one-third of the cars on I-595 (greater Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at rush hour! There are, of course, ways to reduce cloud computing’s GHG emissions, but those generally involve increased cost and reduced speed…
It is somewhat like the tradeoffs we see in our industry: We can reduce the GHG emissions of our HVAC systems, but it generally comes with a price, as higher energy-efficiency-ratio/seasonal-energy-efficiency-ratio/coefficient-of-performance values generally translate to higher first costs (although, depending on the energy rated, the operating costs may be significantly lower)…
Read more from the source @ http://hpac.com/blog/hvac-and-cloud-computing-more-similar-you-think?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HPACArticles+(HPAC+-+News+and+Features)
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