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Data centers use cooling systems to move heat from servers to the outdoors. Water use varies because facilities differ in how they capture and reject that heat, what the local climate allows, and how their cooling equipment is operated. Evaporative cooling towers consume water chiefly through evaporation; systems that avoid or reduce tower operation can use less water, though they may have other energy or operational trade-offs.
How heat leaves a data center
Servers turn electrical power into heat. Cooling equipment must carry that heat away from IT hardware and release it outside the building. In a common air-cooled design, the process uses several stages and loops:
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- Server to room air: Fans move air through or around IT equipment, picking up heat.
- Room air to chilled water: Computer-room air-conditioning equipment transfers heat from the air to a chilled-water loop.
- Chilled water to condenser water: A chiller moves heat into a condenser-water loop.
- Condenser water to outdoors: A cooling tower releases heat to the atmosphere, chiefly by evaporating water.
The precise arrangement varies. Some facilities use outside air or heat exchangers to reduce chiller operation, while liquid-cooling systems capture heat closer to the servers. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) describes data-center cooling and efficiency practices.
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In an evaporative cooling tower, a portion of the circulating water evaporates as the system rejects heat. That evaporation is the main water loss and an important part of the heat-rejection process. Towers also discharge some water as blowdown to keep minerals from concentrating too far; drift and leaks can add smaller losses. FEMP notes, “Therefore, by design, cooling towers use significant amounts of water.” FEMP’s cooling-tower guidance explains the role of evaporation and water management.
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Not every cooling system uses an evaporative tower in the same way—or at all. The fact that a facility uses liquid cooling, however, does not by itself establish that it avoids water consumption: the downstream equipment that rejects heat determines whether evaporative cooling remains part of the system.
How cooling approaches differ
Cooling options vary in where they capture heat, how much they rely on chillers or evaporative equipment, and how well they suit a facility’s climate and IT load. No approach is universally best; the design has to match the heat density, site conditions, and operational capabilities.
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| Approach | How it moves heat | Water and operating considerations |
|---|---|---|
| Air-side economizing | Uses suitable outside air to cool the facility, reducing mechanical-cooling hours. | Whether it can operate depends on outdoor temperature, humidity, and air quality; it can reduce mechanical cooling when conditions permit. |
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FEMP’s data-center guidance covers economizing, while DOE guidance on efficient data-center cooling describes approaches to heat capture and rejection.
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Water use is not a fixed amount per data center. The amount depends on the heat the facility must remove and how effectively each stage transfers it. Local weather affects how often economizers can operate and how hard mechanical cooling must work. Temperature and humidity settings, tower management, and the system’s overall design also matter.
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For a tower system, cycles of concentration describe how much dissolved mineral content is allowed to build up in circulating water before blowdown is required. Raising the cycles can reduce the need for makeup water and blowdown, but the achievable level depends on source-water chemistry, treatment, and equipment limits. FEMP’s 2019 guidance says increasing cycles of concentration from three to six can lower cooling-tower makeup water by 20% and blowdown by 50%; those figures describe that specific operating change, not a guaranteed saving for every facility. See FEMP’s water-efficiency recommendations.
What WUE tells you—and what it does not
Water usage effectiveness (WUE) is annual site water use in liters divided by annual IT equipment energy use in kilowatt-hours, expressed as liters per kilowatt-hour. It normalizes water use against IT energy, which can help compare performance when the reporting boundaries and periods match. But WUE does not, on its own, tell you which cooling design a facility uses or whether its water comes from a locally scarce source. A meaningful comparison should identify the site boundary and reporting period, as well as the local water context. FEMP outlines WUE and data-center efficiency metrics.
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Practical ways to reduce cooling-related water use
Water savings depend on equipment, climate, water quality, and operating requirements. Potential measures include:
- Review temperature and humidity settings. FEMP recommends raising overly conservative temperature set points and widening unnecessarily narrow humidity controls where the equipment and operating practices allow it. This can reduce cooling demand.
- Use air-side economizing when conditions permit. Suitable outdoor air can reduce mechanical-cooling hours, provided temperature, humidity, and air quality are acceptable.
- Use water-side economizing where the design and climate support it. A heat exchanger and cooling-tower capacity can cool the chilled-water loop while reducing or bypassing chiller operation.
- Manage tower cycles within water-quality and equipment limits. Higher cycles can reduce makeup water and blowdown, but require suitable chemistry and treatment.
FEMP’s 2019 guidance cites potential chiller energy consumption 20% lower from a bundle of practices that allows higher chilled-water temperatures and reduced airflow. This is guidance about a potential result, not a universal measured saving. FEMP’s recommendations describe the practices and their operating context.
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DOE also publishes illustrative daily cooling-tower water-use estimates based on chiller tonnage and cycles of concentration for systems running at full load. Those estimates are not universal consumption figures: actual water use changes with load, operating hours, weather, and system management. Consult DOE’s cooling-tower guidance for the assumptions behind those estimates.
Why a single water-use number can mislead
A WUE figure needs its reporting period and site boundary to be interpretable, and a tower-use estimate needs its load and operating assumptions. Even a well-defined ratio does not reveal local water stress or the cooling design behind it. For example, FEMP’s 2019 account reports PUE of 1.06 and WUE of 0.7 for the National Laboratory of the Rockies data-center example. Those are facility-specific figures, not typical industry results; the account also notes additional control loops and operating requirements in the hybrid system described. Read FEMP’s facility example and its stated context.
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