NORTEK DCC

The ROI of liquid cooling A major barrier to adopting liquid cooling is the perceived upfront capital expenditure. However, the playbook notes that liquid cooling can reduce cooling energy spent by up to 90 % and yield a Total Cost of Ownership( TCO) up to 20 % lower than air cooling after four years. What are the biggest misconceptions operators still hold about the financial viability of making this transition?

As I mentioned in my previous response, we understand the hesitation to replace an entire system in one fell swoop, but on the other hand, some may be failing to take a bird’ s eye view of liquid cooling’ s ROI and TCO.

The biggest mistake is focusing solely on upfront cost instead of lifecycle cost. Liquid cooling may require a larger initial investment, but much lower energy requirements of cooling changes the economics over the life of the system. Additionally, operators sometimes underestimate the cost of maintaining air cooling as densities rise.

Forcing traditional air systems to support increasingly highdensity deployments introduces infrastructure creep, necessitating additional equipment and power as the demands skyrocket. All of a sudden, the“ cheaper” option becomes pretty expensive. Again, the transition doesn’ t have to happen all at once. Hybrid and modular

Thomas Steen CTO Nortek DCC

approaches enable operators to introduce liquid cooling where it delivers maximum impact and greatest value first, instead of jumping straight to a complete facility overhaul.

The bottom line is that operators must view a TCO assessment of liquid cooling through a lifecycle lens, factoring efficiency, scalability and future infrastructure requirements.

The financial case grows stronger when operators consider not only energy savings but also the cost of supporting increasingly dense compute environments over the next several years.

84 October 2026