Free Cooling & the Power Chain
The UK climate gives economisers most of the year for free, and the UPS fleet gives back percent after percent once someone checks its loading.
10 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
Britain's weather is a data centre subsidy. For most hours of most years, the air outside a UK facility is cold enough to cool it with little or no compressor work, and the equipment that harvests that gift (economisers, in their various forms) is the single biggest lever on the cooling bill. This lesson covers free cooling as the UK climate offers it, then turns to the power chain's equivalent quiet win: getting the UPS fleet off the inefficient end of its curve. Between them, these two account for most of the gap between a 1.5 facility and a 1.2 one.