Spain bans air conditioning from dropping below 27°C

[Zoom7000]

Is it just me or is anyone else thinking that Spanish server rooms are gonna be a little bit toasty?!

 

Spain bans air conditioning from dropping below 27°C

 

A debate has been sparked after Spain's government moved to prevent offices, shops and other venues from setting air conditioning below 27°C in the summer.

 

It is part of plans to cut the country's energy consumption and limit dependency on Russian gas.

 

The decree, published on Tuesday morning, will also stop heating from being raised above 19°C during the winter.

 

The rules will be mandatory in all public and commercial buildings, including bars, cinemas, theatres, airports and train stations.

 

It is extended as a recommendation to Spanish households.

 

“Right now, perhaps suggested by the heat wave we are experiencing, I would say that with 27 degrees we will be very hot," Andrea Castillo, a worker at Castellón university, told Euronews. "Perhaps we could work at 25 degrees, but not at 27.”

 

Laura Berge, a civil servant in Valencia, questioned the practicality of the measure.

 

“Generally speaking, you can work at 27 degrees, but to reach that temperature in hot areas, you need to put the air conditioner at 22 or 23 degrees for a couple of hours, so I am worried that it will not be allowed to exceed 27 degrees. at any time,” she told Euronews.

 

"In that case, the air would have to be turned on well in advance and it would be counterproductive in terms of energy savings."

 

Berge's colleague, María Isabel Ruiz, agrees.

 

"I am in favour of saving energy and that this requires sacrifices, but these proposed temperatures are not adequate," she said.

 

"It would be necessary to indicate a range of 2 or 3 degrees to adapt it to the outside temperatures since in each region of Spain it is different."

 

The government passed the bill as part of a bid to reduce the country's gas consumption by 7% in line with the recent European Union energy agreements to limit dependency on Russian gas.

 

"We see that it saves energy and is good for climate change, but our concern is that it affects families, especially the most vulnerable," said Ana Isabel Gracia, secretary of social policies and housing at the Spanish trade union UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores).

 

“Instead of taking global measures, it should be specified by establishments so that they can have a different temperature. It is not the same to work, for example, in a place where there is a lot of machinery and the temperature is very high, and in another type of environment where there is none of that.

 

“There are studies that say that the optimal temperature is 24 degrees. Therefore, perhaps, instead of raising it to 27 degrees, we could stay at 25.”

 

Teresa Ribera, Spain's ecological transition minister, said the measures -- which include switching off store window lights after 10 pm but not street lighting -- would initially be maintained until November 2023.

 

She encouraged Spaniards to join the cuts, saying it would not only reduce consumption levels but also bring down households' energy bills.

 

Source - Euronews

[FN-GM]

Server rooms don’t need to be as cold as an icebox.

 

We have our servers in a data centre and it’s warmer than room temperature.

[Dos_Box]

As long as the room is at a temp that the machinery inside is within working parameters then all should be fine.

Actually getting the temp correct as per Spanish govt guidelines could be a long process of trial and error though.

[Rob_D]

As long as the room is at a temp that the machinery inside is within working parameters then all should be fine.

Actually getting the temp correct as per Spanish govt guidelines could be a long process of trial and error though.

 

How so? Govt guidelines (according to the UK reporting) are that the aircons can't be set to below 27C. So surely you set the aircon at 27, and whatever the room equalizes at (presumably somewhere around 27) is where it has to stay. Unless I'm missing something.

[jthompson]

I think the Spanish air-con thing is only for public spaces, so would it apply to server rooms? There's preumably an optimal trade-off between reduced AC energy use and any extra energy used by server room equipment for cooling in a higher room temp.

[paulkerton]

Well, there should also be a reducing need for server rooms as more and more things move to the cloud, so whatever temperature you're setting the AC at, it should be working less hard than it was a few years ago, and working even less than it is now in a few years time.

 

27 degrees should be fine. Google Data Centres run their data centres at 80 Farenheit, and 27 degrees is 80.6. Also, air flow means just as much as the ambient temperature too, you want a good flow across the components to move the air away from them to keep them cool.

[Rob_D]

I suppose in temperate climates server room AC is really there to remove the heat generated by the equipment from the room, and it's only in really hot places (or during really hot times of year), when there's potentially a need to take the room "sub-ambient".

At a guess, the reason server room ACs are often set so aggressively is stop them idling (and because "that's how it's always been")

[MartinT]

We set our server room aircon to 22C as it's quite commonly recommended, especially by our aircon support company.

[mikes]

27 sounds a bit warm but some places take the mick with ice cold temperatures. I know a hospital has to keep temperatures low to stop the spread of infection but my last stay in hospital (for cellulitis of the face/mastoiditis) - the temperature was soo low it was uncomfortable - I had to pour warm water from the toilets into an empty bottle of water and use that to warm myself! after 3 days of it I ended up discharging myself. I guess I'm just not one of these people who enjoys arctic temperatures. My old NM used to sit in the server room all day and work in there - it was freezing yet he never seemed bothered at all!

 

For us 27c seems so high as to render getting A/C almost pointless, but in spain I remember it being 40c - so hot I just slept outside on the grass, something I'd never do in the UK

[3s-gtech]

I guess it depends how it’s measured - target temperature, a particular point in the room, an average? If it’s target, the outlet zone may get quite hot. Shouldn’t be too much of a risk to component life really though.