What immersion cooling changes for operators and the business

Use less space and simplify buildout

Higher server density per rack means fewer racks for the same compute, and no raised floor or high ceiling for airflow.

• More servers in less space
• No raised floors or high ceilings needed for air distribution
• LCS publishes a footprint reduction of up to 70% from higher density per rack

How to read this: The 70% figure depends on the air-cooled baseline and rack density compared; the baseline is pending confirmation.

Protect hardware and reduce maintenance

Dielectric fluid cools and shields electronics from dust and airborne contaminants, common causes of failure, and removes fans, chillers, and DX units from the maintenance list.

• No need to throttle CPUs or GPUs to avoid overheating
• Electronics isolated from dust, humidity, and corrosive air
• No server fans to maintain

Cut the energy spent on cooling

Without server fans, air handlers, air conditioning, or humidity control, much less power goes to cooling.

• Published: cooling power reduced by up to 98% vs. air cooling
• Published cooling PUE as low as 1.03

How to read this: These are cooling-system figures. They are not reductions in total IT or facility energy, and cooling PUE is not whole-facility PUE.

No consumptive water use by the cooling system

The dielectric fluid circulates in a closed loop and does not evaporate. LCS states the fluid has a global warming potential (GWP) of zero and never needs replacement.

• No water consumed by the LCS cooling loop
• Fluid does not need replacement, per LCS

How to read this: “No water consumed” is not the same as “no water connection”: liquid-to-liquid setups transfer heat into a facility water loop, whose own water use depends on the facility.

Lower emissions and recover heat

Less cooling power means less on-site demand. And because heat leaves in liquid, much of it can be captured for building or process heating.

• Lower on-site power demand
• Published: more than 90% of waste heat can be captured
• LCS also states e-waste can be reduced by 30% through longer hardware life

How to read this: Heat captured in the fluid is not heat reused, reuse requires a connected heat demand. The e-waste figure's basis is pending confirmation.

Quiet operation

With no server fans, noise and vibration from the servers are eliminated.

• Fanless servers
• Published system noise <55 dBA where fan-assisted heat exchangers are used

How to read this: Fanless servers do not mean a fanless site: fan-assisted heat-rejection equipment can still produce noise.