What tools do you use to measure energy efficiency in your data centers? I know some companies even create their own tools and measurement systems to help them determine if they are reducing energy use and meeting their goals to be more energy efficient.
You can chart past energy usage and then start charting the amount of energy you use after you start using more energy efficient methods in your data center. You can then compare the figures to determine how much less energy you are using.
I would be interested in knowing more about energy efficiency tools as well. I think you can benefit from using tools that help you measure and track energy use.k Then, you also want the technology to help you reduce your use of energy.
Charting your energy usage every month can be very helpful. It is the only way you can see if your ideas and new energy efficient equipment is worked as you hoped. The only problem with this plan is it can take a long time to see if any progress has been made. We have solar panels on our roof, and they can contribute quite a bit of energy for a fairly low cost. Our only problem is snow!
We use a rather complicated combination of factors to determine if we are meeting our energy targets. It is not just about saving energy with our center, it is also about trying to use renewable energy sources. We aren't big enough to run our own wind farm so we buy Renewable Energy Certificates equal to the power we use for our datacenter. For some of processes we do use solar energy directly, but this is only a very small part of our energy consumption.