We've heard it before.

Many datacenter operators are keeping their temps unnecessarily Arctic. Yahoo seems to think so and Google has also started to weigh in.

Arguably, there are few high-profile datacenter operators bigger than Google. So when they dole out advice or let techies peek behind the curtain, it pays to listen. Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge reports:

The latest company to focus attention on temperature in the data center is Google. "The guidance we give to data center operators is to raise the thermostat," said Erik Teetzel, an Energy Program Manager at Google. "Many data centers operate at 70 degrees or below. We’d recommend looking at going to 80 degrees."

Sounds suicidal, right? Not if you concentrate your cooling efforts on airflow instead.

IBM, Intel and others have been pushing the concept of optimizing airflow for a good long while now. Turn on a fan, point it at yourself and your computer and you can start to envision how it works, albeit in a simplified manner. No need to crank the AC, right?

Naturally, you'll need to conduct a more specialized analysis for your setup. However, the savings might just be worth it...

How much money can you save by raising the cooling set point in the data center? Microsoft (MSFT) wanted to find out, and tested the impact of slightly higher temperatures in its Silicon Valley data center. "We raised the floor temperature two to four degrees, and saved $250,000 in annual energy costs," said Don Denning, Critical Facilities Manager at Lee Technologies, which worked with Microsoft on the project.

But doubts persist. You're bound to run into conflicting accounts from datacenter operators (no one ever got fired for running at 60 degrees) and there are concerns about voiding hardware warranties for edging toward the toastier side of a device's stated thermal range.

However, if leading tech companies have their way (Intel, IBM, Google, Microsoft...), the days of datacenters-slash-meat-lockers appear to be numbered.