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I live in Utah County, approximately 40 minutes south of Salt Lake City. I live less than 20 minutes away from Eagle Mountain, where they are going to build a n

I live in Utah County, approximately 40 minutes south of Salt Lake City. I live less than 20 minutes away from Eagle Mountain, where they are going to build a new Facebook data center, and less than 20 minutes away from a rather large NSA data center installation in Bluffdale. We also have C7 and Rackspace 10s of minutes north of me and Adobe HQ 10 minutes away as well. I don't know why people use Salt Lake City as a location for data centers in the sense of its cheaper to cool. We are high elevation, but we are a high-elevation desert. It's usually pretty hot here. We have winters, true, and it's way dry here, but the winters are rather mild, especially compared to places like Wisconsin or Chicago, where I am originally from. It must be because of cheap electricity and/or tax laws. We have a lot of wind power here, and some coal power as well. One thing's for sure: cooling isn't why they build datacenters here. I have no idea why but I'm not complaining either :)

jdsully 7y ago
The lower the humidity the more efficient evaporative cooling is. These data centers don’t use traditional AC.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  This is, as it so happens, why we sweat "more" in higher humidity (given a constant temperature relative to a non-humid atmosphere), and why humidity adds to perceived temperature. We're actually still sweating either way, but when the air's already humid there's nowhere for that sweat to go, so it stays on your body (and with it, the heat it was supposed to wick away).
tracker1 7y ago
As mentioned in another comment, cooling towers (evaporative) work very well in high desert areas. Phoenix is pretty popular for banking corporation data centers because of relative geographic stability, but I'd guess the cooling costs are a bit higher, I know some data centers have very thick walls and very tight security in the area. Also, it is quite a bit cooler than say Las Vegas or Phoenix, while being more central. The relatively mild winters is also a benefit in terms of geographic stability, you're less likely to see structural issues than you would in other areas of the country with more wild swings. It's also possible for certain components to be too cold as well. Tax incentives and a relatively less expensive labor pool don't hurt either.

jdsully 7y ago

The lower the humidity the more efficient evaporative cooling is. These data centers don’t use traditional AC.

yellowapple 7y ago
This is, as it so happens, why we sweat "more" in higher humidity (given a constant temperature relative to a non-humid atmosphere), and why humidity adds to perceived temperature. We're actually still sweating either way, but when the air's already humid there's nowhere for that sweat to go, so it stays on your body (and with it, the heat it was supposed to wick away).

tracker1 7y ago

As mentioned in another comment, cooling towers (evaporative) work very well in high desert areas. Phoenix is pretty popular for banking corporation data centers because of relative geographic stability, but I'd guess the cooling costs are a bit higher, I know some data centers have very thick walls and very tight security in the area. Also, it is quite a bit cooler than say Las Vegas or Phoenix, while being more central. The relatively mild winters is also a benefit in terms of geographic stability, you're less likely to see structural issues than you would in other areas of the country with more wild swings. It's also possible for certain components to be too cold as well. Tax incentives and a relatively less expensive labor pool don't hurt either.