Temperature /Air Con / Health and Safety

[CyberNerd]

I have an interesting argument for those seeking AirCon units that I learned whilst attending an unrelated Health and Safety course :

 

If electrical equipment operates above the environmental regulations set out by the manufacturer (in the technical specifications for an HP Proliant the max operating temperature is 35 deg C), then the equipment must not be used as it could cause an electrical fault or fire.

 

HSE give 28 days to rectify problems before they prosecute.

Ultimately failure to comply with Health and Safety Executive can lead to fines or imprisonment.

 

Clearly grassing up your SMT to HSE should only be a last resort! and the proper way to draw this to managements attention is via the Health and Safetly officer or the LEA's H+S officer.

 

Usually HSE only come in after an accident but apparently they are also quite happy to go for 'preventative' reasons.

Go check some of the schools who have been prosecuted for HSE offenses! :0

http://www.hse-databases.co.uk/prosecutions/search/industry/subsector.asp?SF=IS&SV=38&Sector_Name=Education

[webman]

Excellent , even more ammunition for our case :twisted:

[russdev]

introducing edugeek latest adventure aircon unit sales sponsored in part by HSE

 

Russ

[john]

Anybody know the Opperating Temps of HP Workstations?

[indiegirl]

Thank you... thank you... thank you.

 

This might just be the catalyst that makes our school's SMT sit up and listen hard... 33 in our room today, so I'm sure our HPs were operating higher than that....

[john]

I just found this on the HSE Site:

"The HSE guidance publication, Thermal Comfort in the Workplace, seeks to define thermal comfort, and states: 'An acceptable zone of thermal comfort for most people in the UK lies roughly between 13°C (56°F) and 30°C (86°F), with acceptable temperatures for more strenuous work activities concentrated towards the bottom end of the range, and more sedentary activities towards the higher end.'"

 

Linky - http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/thermal/faq.htm may also be useful to throw about

[theriver]

By coincidence I was looking at a spec sheet for an HP printer this morning, and the max operating temp for that model (3000DN) is a cool 27 degrees, i.e. a fair amount lower than your Proliant.....

[Ric_]

@theriver: Does your 3000 blow hot air out like a hand-drier? Mine do!!!

[theriver]

@Ric: looking at the specs was a prelude to ordering it . . . . . it's not arrived yet, although am already regretting purchase ;-)

[webman]

When I arrived at work this morning, Bossman told me one of the new £1200 NAS servers (Buffalo TeraStation) had turned itself off and had "TOO HOT" on the display According to it's manual, the operating temperature is 0°c - 35°c; the average temperature in here is between 30°c and 38°c. Oh dear :twisted:

[kestrel1]

We have seven servers in a rack, plus a few pc's in the server office. Last year the temp was averaging 33 degrees. I found a white paper about server room temperature that I presented to smt. This was the only reason that I got aircon in the office. I can now control the temp. I don't think they would have noticed if I had passed out, but if the servers suffered they would have.

[Ric_]

In my rack, I have an APC UPS with an environmental monitoring card which monitors the temperature. If the temperature rises above a set level, all the servers are powered down... this works (the air con was accidentally left off for 20 minutes once)!

[russdev]

We have seven servers in a rack, plus a few pc's in the server office. Last year the temp was averaging 33 degrees. I found a white paper about server room temperature that I presented to smt. This was the only reason that I got aircon in the office. I can now control the temp. I don't think they would have noticed if I had passed out, but if the servers suffered they would have.

 

anychance of pointing us to the whitepaper

 

Russ

[kestrel1]

Yes, I have found the artical again.

Have a look at this:

http://www.openxtra.co.uk/articles/recommended-server-room-temperature.php

Hope it helps.

I have my aircon set to 19oc at present. It has been very hot around here, but very nice in my office.

Probably change this in the Winter though, as I will get mouned at by the head of ICT. We have to share the office.

[Espada]

A long time ago when I worked in industry, I was employed by a company who were moving offices soon after I began, anyway I went to the new offices to scope out my new server room and was surprised to find a 1.5m x 1.5m room with a quater of that taken up by a cupboard from next door. My first comment was, it will NEED aircon.

 

This room also had telephone equipment in. For some reason telephone equipment always seems to cut out at 30 deg C. Anyway we move after they decided it didn't need aircon, in December and in the middle of January the phones stop working because the room had topped thirty!

[kestrel1]

Luckily my office/server room is a bit bigger than that, but the window is small. It is about 2.5m x 10m, but it used to get very hot, even in the winter.The server fans used to go ballistic, nearly all the time & I could hear them from the main door into the building. This is now much better & the servers have reduced in noise level.

If you are going to have servers in a closed room, get aircon. They should consult the people who know before they build these rooms.

[Espada]

Part of the reason they employed me was because I knew, they just decided to ignore my advice. I bet they still don't have aircon now.

[_Bob_]

When I arrived at work this morning, Bossman told me one of the new £1200 NAS servers (Buffalo TeraStation) had turned itself off and had "TOO HOT" on the display

Found ours in this state on Friday morning. Didnt help that the electricians in fitting the badly needed aircon unit, had wrapped a towel around it as a dust cover! Sometimes I wonder what's going on in their heads...

[kestrel1]

There are some very bad workmen around.

I just glad that they listened to my advice about aircon though. Mind you, this was only to help the servers, not the poor old workers.

Don't you just love the powers that be!!!!