Most buildings aren't designed specifically for the unique needs of a server room, so it's no wonder that many server rooms aren't properly designed in terms of cooling. The solution for most has been to bring in portable air conditioners or spot coolers to take the unique needs of the server room.
Computers and server room equipment need to be kept cool-even in the winter months when heat is being pumped into the building to keep the staff warm. Because there normally isn't a way for the hot air to be diverted from the server room and even less likely that a building's HVAC system allows for controlled temperatures on a room-to-room basis, the problem is a serious one.
Choosing a portable air conditioner: There are several different features to look for when comparing portable air conditioners for use in a server room. The first is the number of BTU's that the spot cooler produces. BTU's, or British Thermal Units are the metric that determines how much heat a particular portable air conditioner can displace.
In order to arrive at the number of BTU's necessary for a portable air conditioner to cool your server room, you'll need to take measurements of the room and any windows in the room, add up the total wattage for the equipment in the room, count the number of lights in the room, and document the number of regular occupants. A portable air conditioning expert can then use this data to recommend a spot cooler with the right number of BTU's to do the job. It's a good idea to get more BTU's than you need currently to handle future growth.
Monitoring the temperature: The ideal temperature for a server room is between 68 and 71 degrees. An acceptable range is between 50 and 82 degrees. Any hotter and you're risking damage to your server chips. When getting a temperature read on the room, keep in mind the number of occupants that spend most of their day in the data center or server room. A person working in the room can add a good deal of body heat, enough to displace about 400 BTU's of cooling power. Also, the current temperature outside will affect the room, as will the air conditioning or heat filling the remainder of the building.
What you'll need is a way to consistently monitor the temperature of the room to ensure that your portable air conditioner is maintaining the temperature properly. There are motoring devices that generate an alert when data center temperatures get out of range and can even point out any hotspots in the data center. Even if your portable air conditioner is doing its job on the overall temperature of the room, it's important to identify hot spots where small fans may be necessary.
The potential cost of not addressing the issue is disastrous. Imagine what your company would do tomorrow if suddenly all of your critical data was gone or inaccessible for several days. The process of brining in adequate cooling for your data center isn't a difficult one. Portable air conditioners can be rolled in and used immediately with about 20 minutes of set up time by a portable air conditioning specialist. Once your server room cooling system is set up, you can rest easy knowing that you've taken precautions to preserve your company's data.
Even in the winter months, server rooms need the cooling power of portable air conditioners if adequate temperatures can't be reached through building's internal cooling system. In fact, the winter months present a potentially hazardous problem for server rooms. Rooms in many buildings can't be adjusted independently. So while hot air is forced through the vents to keep employees happy, temperatures in server rooms can mount to dangerously high levels. There are several different types of portable air conditioners and choosing the right one for your server room could be critical to the health of your servers.
Ventilation Portable air conditioners for server rooms need some form of ventilation. Otherwise, while cold air blows out the front, hot air will blow right out the back, keeping the overall temperature level except for the area directly in front of the unit. This doesn't mean that you need a window. Though many people imagine a boxy window portable air conditioner when they hear the term "portable air conditioner," this is not the optimal type for a server room. Not only are there more powerful units, but the reduced security of window units isn't ideal for a server room.
The right type of portable conditioners for a server rooms are those that can vent into a drop ceiling via a ventilation tube. If your server room doesn't have a ceiling adequate for ventilation, an outside wall can be modified to accommodate the small circular ventilation tube which forces out the hot air. Unlike portable air conditioners without vents, this type literally draws the hot air out of the room and forces it into another location.
BTU's BTU's or, British Thermal Units, refer to the energy units that a portable air conditioner can produce. Larger rooms need portable air conditioners with larger BTU's. Generally speaking you can use the following guidelines to determine the necessary BTU's needed to cool your room:
Room size isn't the only consideration. In server rooms especially, the heat generated by the servers also must be taken into consideration. To determine the amount of BTU's needed to displace the heat generated by the equipment, multiply the total wattage of all equipment by 3.5. You'll also want to factor in any people who work in the room on a regular basis. To do this, multiply the number of occupants by 400.
Most suppliers of portable air conditioners also offer professional installation. Though they can be easily rolled from room to room, there is a small amount of installation required for venting the displaced air. In the past, larger portable air conditioners required complex wiring, but now some manufactures models, like the Avenger, can be used with a standard plug while still providing serious cooling power. Once installed, your portable air conditioner can run smoothly, quietly, and virtually maintenance-free for years.
Christine Harrell has sinced written about articles on various topics from Mortgage, Careers and Job Hunting and Personal Desktop. Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on , visit. Christine Harrell's top article generates over 550000 views. to your Favourites.