It's a sea of press releases out there, but this one caught my attention. Pittsburgh-based Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, with 3.1 million members, has announced that it saved 5.6% in energy costs in 2008, for a total of $329,000 in savings. That's not exactly chump change – how many IT specialists could a company hire for that? And no, the answer is not "One, Me!" Many of the changes are pretty non-revolutionary such as lighting, cleaning hours, and HVAC systems. In one facility, the company installed "energy-saving devices on all beverage vending machines," which I'm guessing means they turned off the refrigerator at night. Makes sense. Here's the part that caught my eye:
At its Silver LEED
certified Data Center facility near Hershey, Pa., energy consumption decreased
by 4.7 percent, resulting in a cost decrease of $52,000 from 2007 to 2008.
These savings are in part because of a reduction of lighting in unoccupied
areas, reduction of HVAC equipment operating hours, and modifications to
temperature and humidity controls.
We all know that server equipment can get pretty unhappy in high temperature and humidity conditions, but maybe Highmark's experience is proof-positive that there is still low-hanging fruit to be plucked when it comes to energy savings in data centers?