H2O Cooled Datacenters

Frequently Asked Questions

“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” - Miles Kington

An H2O data center is a ultra-high efficiency facility cooled by natural water resulting in the lowest validated Power Utilization Effectiveness (PUE) in the industry. The H2O water-cooled data center has the flexibility of being constructed on a vessel or on land near a body of water.

Cost Savings: A lower cost for consumers through high density rack spaces, energy and resource efficient cooling systems, and reduced construction time.
Efficiency: H2O water-cooled data centers have the lowest validated Power Utilization Effectiveness (PUE) of any commercial data center, reducing carbon emissions and energy usage by up to 30%.
Simplified System:The H2O data center design strips away complexity, points of failure and polluting elements of the traditional data center design to focus on the essential bottle-neck: cooling. Because the H2O data center is deployed on or near water, this accessibility directly cools the heat at the source, without evaporating or consuming any potable water nor water treatment chemicals.
Decreased Build Time: A manufactured H2O water-cooled data center is constructed and deployed in approximately nine to twelve months across the globe, compared to much longer build cycle for traditional, land-based air-cooled data centers.
Resilient Facility: A H2O facility is highly secure and disaster resilient, making them ideal for earthquake, flood or other disaster-prone areas. Additionally, similar to traditional air-cooled data centers, H2O seeks to deploy in disaster-free zones.

H2O data centers have an estimated PUE of 1.15 in most locations.

PUE is a common global metric used to determine data center energy efficiency. PUE is the ratio of energy used to run IT and IT supporting equipment, such as cooling and power systems, compared to the energy to run only the IT equipment.

Water-cooling is a form of convection cooling utilizing the high heat transfer capabilities and thermal capacity of water. Water is capable of absorbing more heat at a faster rate, 3,500 times faster, than an equivalent mass of air or mineral oil.

H2O data centers are technically and environmentally engineered to be optimized for specific salinity and water conditions. H2O facilities are engineered with corrosion resistant materials.

H2O systems are capable of cooling up to 105 kW per rack.

H2O data centers are designed for uninterrupted power and connectivity during server technology upgrades or maintenance.

H2O data centers are designed to be deployed on or near a body of water to take advantage of H2O's patented water-cooling technology for maximum cooling. Bodies of water may include ports, lakes, rivers, canals, harbors, or protected ocean bays.

Each H2O water-cooled data center is housed within a water-proof, dust proof facility with NEMA 3 rating, F3 tornado rating, and F3 hurricane rating. Internally, the facility has an extensive monitoring and leak prevention system (LPS) for all piping. The H2O facility is highly secure and disaster resilient.

H2O waterborne data centers are deployed on International Maritime Organization (IMO) certified barges to optimize access to intake water sources for advanced water-cooling processes. Vessels are proven naval structures that offer durability, mobility, stability, reliability, disaster resilience, and an economic alternative to scarce and expensive land.

A land-based data center is a facility built in its permanent location, on land, with all IT equipment housed within that facility.
A waterborne data center is a facility based on a vessel with all IT equipment housed within. A waterborne data center can be transported to a different location after construction.

H2O water-cooled data centers are water agnostic and do not require or use potable water. H2O facilities are designed to intake a multitude of water types and conditions (salt, brackish, grey, fresh, or potable water) and return the water back to its original source with negligible thermal impact. No water treatment chemicals are added to the water during the cooling process.

A water agnostic system is capable of operating in any water and is resistant to damages caused by particulate within impure water. A water agnostic system could run with drinking, brackish, salt, or grey water.

The sizing of the vessel varies based upon data center configuration and customer requirements. The current 6 MW data center vessel is 230 ft long and 55 ft wide.

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