eyetea Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 Is there an ideal temperature for Air Con in server rooms / edge cab cupboards? Our Bursar / Site Manager went to an eco meeting yesterday evening and are wondering if we can get away with turning any of it off / down (temp up!) If you have air con, what is yours set to? Cheers, J
Steve21 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 Always got ours on minimum it will go 16/18~ Prime example old school had 2 AC and when one died it'll slowly heat up and in morning it felt like Vegas in there Warnings galore. Guess that depends how many servers/switches etc you have in the room though Steve 1
elsiegee40 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 It certainly doesn't need to refrigerate the room. It's intended to stop kit getting too hot - not to keep it cold. A comfortable human room temperature around 20C is plenty low enough in my opinion 1
localzuk Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 (edited) Aircon isn't there to keep the temperature "low" as such. Its there to keep the temperature stable. So long as that stable temperature is within the operating temperature for all the equipment in the room, its a good temperature. Its temperature instability that does damage to equipment more than warm temperatures (if those temps are within operating ranges for the equipment). We keep ours warmer than many people keep theirs, at around 25 degrees. EDIT: Just to add, we haven't seen a single piece of hardware fail since adopting this temperature policy, in 4 years. One major thing we did see happen was humidity in the room has increased a little, which is a good thing I was it was so low prior to that when we followed a "low as possible" policy, that it left the safe operating ranges for some of our equipment a few times. So, definitely worth monitoring both temperature and humidity. Edited June 19, 2015 by localzuk 3
Mr_Jiminy Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 Can anyone recommend a decent(ish) mobile air con unit for a very small server room?
Steve21 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 (edited) But having it higher would depend a lot on how much kit you have in there, and how big an AC etc Even at 16-18c on AC some of our kit runs within 20c of it's "I'm unhappy" range. If you're adding 10c on from reducing AC that's down to 10c range of it. That's not much range for any PSU failures resulting in additional fan speeds, extra kit, hot days etc etc Not saying it isn't doable, but I'd certainly be wary of what your actual kit is running at, not just what the AC is set to Steve Edited June 19, 2015 by Steve21 1
localzuk Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 It isn't about what temperature you set your aircon at - its down to the temperature of the equipment, of course. We have a temperature monitor for the room, to give us indication if the temperature fluctuates. If your aircon is set to 18 degrees and the room is running at 25 degrees, your aircon is the wrong size. 3
RLR Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 We have ours around 19c but also have some temp@lert monitors in our main rooms to send us emails if temperature goes about 24C: Temperature Monitoring | Temperature Alert
clockend25 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 We keep it set to 18 but it probably keeps the room at around 20 degrees. All I know is the server room is a pretty glorious place to be at this time of year.
elsiegee40 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 I agree with localzuk. If you're aircon isn't achieving the set temperature then it's not big enough. You are aiming for a steady room temperature of 20-25C regardless of what it actually says on the dial.
eyetea Posted June 19, 2015 Author Posted June 19, 2015 Thanks for the useful replies - will pass some notes back to bursar / site manager
aleach2 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 We set our Server room to 21C. Our servers run pretty cool any way. We force air circulation in our cabs by leaving the sides on and using fans on the top to pull the cooled air from the floor through the cab. In our office we set it to 21/22C.
Steve21 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 I agree with localzuk. If you're aircon isn't achieving the set temperature then it's not big enough. I don't know what you guys run server wise etc but I've never seen a server room run at the temperature that the AC is set to unless it's in a data centre style etc. It's always going to be higher. But my point was the room temperature means nothing at all if your kit is running at a high temperature internally. AC set to 16c, Room 19c, Picking random server and part (Control Module 1 - 67c (Max 85c)). If you're turning AC down/up 10c, that's now 77~ at basic temp without much room for fluctuation/issues/errors etc. Personally I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference what it's set at AC/Room wise, as long as the actual kit has enough room to fluctuate without it suddenly becoming an issue that if a PSU etc dies it starts overheating just because we had AC too high/low Steve
JRowley Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 Our server room AC is set to 21. Our Office on the other hand doesn't have AC, there is a pipe leading from an AC unit in one of the IT suites which is meant to feed our room, it barely has any effect. The office also has no heating, so depending on the time of year and the weather the office can be anywhere from 10 - 30 degrees.
Pyroman Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 What is this AirCon you speak of? It's currently 29oC in my office/server room
Pottsey Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 We set ours to 20c as at 21C+ the noise levels from the server fans starts to rise a noticeable amount. The lower the temp the less the fans have to work and I guess the longer they should last.
Homer Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 20c in mine, 21c and the core switch fans start making too much noise which is an issue at the moment as it's also doubling up as an office at the moment due to our situation. I have 4 air con units so plenty of cooling power - a steady 20c all day long
Pyroman Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 I read that as 290 degrees It feels like that when you walk in first thing in the morning and it's like you've walked through the gates of hell.
TechSupp Posted June 20, 2015 Posted June 20, 2015 Only just got AC in my new server room, first time we have had anything apart from leaving a door open! Set AC to 22 and have a digital thermometer on top of server which has been registering 22/23. May nudge AC up a touch. Where I sit I have a blade server running under the worktop, it puffs hot air along underneath and it comes up in front of me, whilst the AC is mounted on a wall behind me so back gets cold! Room is now two snug fire doors away from school corridor so found I can have music on and no one can hear but me 😁
Andrew_C Posted June 21, 2015 Posted June 21, 2015 Didn't we do this a month or three back? Your AC should be set to a temp that is cool enough for the least tollerant piece of kit you've got. If the AC cannot achieve that temperature, you need additional cooling, not the temperature "turned down". Doing this will have NO effect on the actual temperature in the room. Keeping a server room at 16 is just burning electricity, coal/gas/whatever, and MONEY.
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