Determine Server Heat Loss for Air Conditioning

For determining the proper requirements for air conditioning systems for a server room, it is important to know the heat loss of the individual devices. For this, the heat loss (power dissipation) is specified in British Thermal Units per hour (BTU/h).

Calculating BTU/h

To calculate the heat loss based on the power consumption (in watts), multiplying the power consumption in watts by 3.41 will suffice.

• Example:

Idle operation: 228 watts 
Operation under load: 388 watts

• BTU/h for idle operation:

228 Watt * 3.41 =  777.48 BTU/h

• BTU/h for operation under load:

388 Watt * 3.41 =  1323.08 BTU/h

• The real heat loss will lie somewhere between these two values depending on the load placed on the server.

Additional Information

• A white paper from the APC regarding the calculation of data center thermal performance, pages 3-4 (in German)
• For determining the requirements for USP equipment, see The Difference between VA (Volt-amperes) and Watts