What is PUE and how is it calculated?

PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) is a metric used to identify how efficiently your data center is running. By comparing total facility power to your IT power, a ratio of cooling vs IT power is calculated. The lower your PUE the more efficient your data center. But it doesn’t tell the whole picture. A low PUE can be achieved by adjusting your cooling setpoint or turning off servers. But this doesn’t mean you are operating efficiently. Underutilized server capacity or undercooling does not make for an efficient data center operation.

PUE & DCiE Calculator

Enter your facility's two numbers — everything updates instantly. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Total facility load includes the IT load, so it can't be smaller than the IT load. Check the two numbers.
PUE
1.60Efficient
DCiE
62.5%
Overhead (non-IT) Load
60 kW
Annual Energy Use
1,402 MWh
Annual Energy Cost
$168,192
Where Your Power Goes
IT Equipment
Overhead

Of every 100 kW you buy, 62.5 kW reaches your IT equipment.

Your Place on the Efficiency Scale
1.2Very Efficient
1.5Efficient
2.0Average
2.5Inefficient
3.0Very Inefficient

Free — for data center managers

Got your number? Get the real one — free.

This calculator gives you a benchmark from two figures. Your actual PUE moves with cooling setpoints, airflow, containment, and load — finding out where it's drifting takes measured data, not estimates. Book a free Data Center PUE Health Check: a 15-minute call with an AKCP specialist to walk through your numbers, spot where energy is most likely being wasted, and plan how to measure your true PUE with sensors — we don't just tell you WHERE you have a problem, we tell you HOW TO FIX IT.

Book your free PUE Health Check (15 min)

No cost, no obligation — bring the numbers above and your questions.

Maximize Your Energy Savings with Free Cooling

Free cooling is a highly effective, energy-efficient strategy that uses naturally cool outdoor air or water to remove heat from a facility. Instead of relying solely on energy-intensive mechanical refrigeration and running power-hungry compressors, a free cooling system leverages favorable outdoor temperatures to do the heavy lifting. This approach can drastically reduce your overall energy consumption, lower your utility bills, and shrink your facility’s carbon footprint.

Discover Your Potential “Free Cooling Days”

Because the effectiveness of this strategy depends entirely on local climate conditions, we have integrated the Free Cooling Tool directly onto this page to help you assess your local environment. By simply inputting your location into the tool below, you can instantly estimate how many “free cooling days” your facility might experience throughout a typical year. A free cooling day represents a day where the outdoor ambient temperature is low enough to supplement or completely replace traditional air conditioning systems.

Use the interactive tool below to:

  • Assess climate viability: Quickly determine if your local weather patterns are suited for an economizer cooling system.

  • Forecast potential savings: Get a clearer picture of how much you could reduce your annual mechanical cooling load.

  • Plan infrastructure upgrades: Make informed, data-driven decisions about upgrading your HVAC or data center cooling systems.

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AKCP data center monitoring sensors

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