What if you could reduce the lighting requirements in your data center by 30% without touching your electrical infrastructure? Imagine how much could that save your organization over time.
When it comes to cutting operational costs, most teams focus on power-hungry systems like servers, cooling, and improving power usage effectiveness (PUE). But there’s another opportunity hiding in plain sight: the color of your cabinets.
How White Data Center Cabinets Can Cut Lighting Energy by Up to 30%
Let’s consider a typical ~5,500 sq. ft. data center with an IT load of ~475kW. Lighting typically accounts for about 5% of the total energy consumption in these environments. That’s around 23.75kW dedicated solely to keeping the room visible.
Reducing that load by just 30%—simply by improving surface reflectivity—can save 7.1kW, the equivalent of thousands of dollars in annual energy costs.
For large-scale environments, like colocation facilities or enterprise campuses, reduced lighting costs can add up quickly. And the solution is simple: switch to white finishes for cabinets, racks, and cable management.
The Reflective Advantage of White Cabinets and Racks
Lighting can account for 5% or more of data center energy use. Learn how a small design change can lower that load—without touching your electrical system.
The science behind it is simple—white surfaces reflect up to 80% of ambient light, while black reflects only about 5%.
“You put dark cabinets in there and the room is going to get darker … especially with having the ISO-bases. The cabinets in the other data center, if you drop a screw in there it’s gone forever. We’ve had screwdrivers that disappeared in there.” – Jeri Ginnaty, CPI Customer, TCS Manager, Data Facilities Group.
The more reflective the surface, the less artificial lighting you need to maintain safe, visible working conditions.
That increased reflectivity supports:
- Fewer lighting fixtures in equipment rows
- Brighter working conditions with less strain on the eyes
- Improved data center visibility during maintenance and installs
- Reduced lighting and cooling energy use
- Measurable cost savings over time
A few years ago, Chatsworth Products (CPI) introduced Glacier White to its cabinet systems, quickly becoming a staple in modern data centers.
The color turned out to be a hit among our customers. Glacier White not only appeals for its reflective traits, but for being timeless, “always in style.”
One CPI customer shared how switching to Glacier White cabinets significantly reduced the number of overhead lights needed in their data center, leading to both lower energy use and reduced maintenance costs.
And beyond energy savings, IT teams also consistently note that white cabinets make it easier to see inside the cabinet, improving accuracy and safety during installations and service work.
Are White Cabinets More Expensive?
Not significantly. In fact, CPI’s Glacier White is one of four standard color options for our ZetaFrame® Cabinet System, which means there’s no custom upcharge and no extended lead time.
Pair white cabinets with CPI’s Vertical Exhaust Duct (VED) or other airflow management solutions, and you unlock even greater cooling efficiency—an essential part of energy-efficient data center and telecom room design.
We also offer cable management and open-frame racks in white for telecom rooms.
Real-World Applications of Glacier White
Orlando Health
Dealing with life or death situations, health care professionals have only one chance to get it right, so the systems that support this mission must include a solid, robust network infrastructure. So, the Florida health care network provider implemented a contemporary data center design using CPI's Glacier White F-Series TeraFrame® Cabinets equipped with Vertical Exhaust Ducts. (Of course, there's much more to Orlando Health's success story than meets the eye.)
TeleCommunication Systems
The Seattle-based telecom deployed evaporative-only cooling, full airside economizer and an airflow containment strategy that utilized CPI’s F-Series TeraFrame® Cabinets in Glacier White finish. The Cabinets included Vertical Exhaust Ducts in a hot/cold aisle layout. The room’s modern, all-white layout of equipment cabinets and Evolution® Cable Management helped reduce energy used for lighting by 30%.
BendBroadband Vault
The telecom and data center colocation service provider wanted a state-of-the-art facility with all-white cabinets to tackle aesthetics and functionality. “If we are going to spend this amount of energy in making this a showcase facility, then we wanted our overhead ladder rack infrastructure in white to match everything up. Chatsworth worked with us on that. We put it all together in the early stages of designs and it all came out flawlessly in the end,” said Bob Mobach, a data center consultant with Logicalis.
Design Tips to Maximize Light Reflectance in Your Data Center
Cabinet color is just the start. To maximize the benefits of white infrastructure and achieve energy-efficient lighting design, consider these additional steps:
- Use light-colored paint on walls and ceilings
- Select finishes with a high Light Reflectance Value (LRV). White reflects ~80% of light, while black reflects ~5%. Paint manufacturers can provide LRV data for each color
- Avoid dark materials in narrow aisles, underfloor areas, or ceiling spaces where visibility matters
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lighting accounts for nearly 25% of total electricity use in commercial buildings. That makes lighting an ideal target for efficiency improvements—and white cabinets an easy, low-cost win.
Start Saving on Lighting and Cooling with CPI’s Glacier White
At Chatsworth Products (CPI), a trusted provider of IT infrastructure solutions, every product we engineer is designed to help you get more from every watt—and every square foot—while simplifying daily operations.
Check out the ZetaFrame® Cabinet System in Glacier White or contact us today to discover how Glacier White can transform your data center.
