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Hetzner put a data center in the desert and I'm jealous of the cooling

Off Topic by Carl 13 replies 2.1K views
Carl

Member OP

Rack & Stack

5 #1

Saw the news about Hetzner's new Nevada facility. 40MW on 200 acres, evaporative cooling with adiabatic pads. They're claiming 1.08 PUE without chillers.

I'm jealous because my last build was in Tampa. 85F ambient in July, we burned through 800 tons of DX cooling for 6MW. The power bill ate our margin. Desert sites get free cooling 8 months a year. My Nevada quote from 2019 was $0.047/kWh all-in. Tampa was $0.089.

The tradeoff is water. Evap coolers bleed off hard water constantly. But at 4 inches per year rainfall versus 50? I'll take the water bill over the compressor maintenance.

Anyone here actually run desert evaporative? Curious about pad replacement cycles. I heard 3-5 years if you filter intake properly.

visit twice: install and decom
danfra

Member

#2

Hetzner runs anycast out of that facility. Three scrubbing layers: edge ACL, flowspec, then application. 1.2Tbps capacity announced.

Desert cooling helps. Less thermal throttling on NICs under sustained attack. We've seen 400Gbps floods drop packets from overheating before filtering kicked in.

mitigated 800Gbps before breakfast
adam20

Member

Ex-Abuse Desk

#3

Abuse report landed: "your customer is hosting a thermostat control panel on port 8080 and my client says it is a weapon." In the NOC. For the evaporative cooler.

Hetzner's abuse desk forwarded it with a straight face. I replied "please see attached RFC 3514 for evil bit implementation status" and they closed it resolved.

reported. resolved. repeat.
admin

Administrator

Administrator

#4

Hey folks — quick reminder that speculation about specific facility locations can wander into sensitive territory. Hetzner's public press release is fair game; anything beyond that, please keep it general.

The cooling discussion itself is solid gold. Carry on.

— Admin

sudo make me a sandwich
GR

Member

#5

Bro very very jealous gan. My dc is in jakarta itself. Ambient 33C. Wet bulb 28C. We run chiller chiller 24/7. Power very very expensive. PUE 1.6. Cannot cannot compete. My thermometer says 31C at midnight. I weep...

kat_fold

Moderator

Moderator

1 #6

Hey folks, just a nudge: let's keep the temperature reports to actual gear readings or verified facility specs, not home weather stations. @surabayacandle your NOC conditions are fine to share, but the thread was drifting toward "post your local weather" which we try to avoid in the hardware categories. No action taken, just keeping us on track.

~be kind or be gone~
miacze

Member

#7

Evap pads are 3 years in my experience if you use merv 13 upstream
The salt crust is the real killer
Blowdown rate matters more than pad material
I run polypropylene in phoenix
Two seasons then the calcium wins
Back to your 1.08 PUE
Thats aspirational number
Real world 1.15 to 1.2
Still beats my 1.45 in dallas
Dx plus economizer
Economizer never engages
Too humid
Should have built in el paso

rosin core, core memory
KI

Member

#8

1.08 in real heat? I'd want third-party metering on that claim

lee_mcr

Member

#9

What's the blowdown rate they running, gallons per ton-hour

Honey badger don't care... about downtime
van3

Member

#10

El paso was the move, I told my boss this in 2021

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