Server room temperature

[netadmin]

We finally purchased a new air conditioner for our server room. It still has to be installed, but I am starting to think about what temperature it should be set at.

 

What temperature do you keep your server room(s) at?

[elsiegee40]

Close to boiling... no air con

 

Lin

[Halfmad]

Mine was at 39 degrees (not a joke) feb/march last year. Asked my boss for an air con unit (I'd only just started) and it arrived the next day. Free standing but connects to a pipe that vents outside. works a treat, room is always around 22-24 degrees now

 

having said that the atmosphere in the room is extremely dry, I'm sure it's why i've gotten so many chest infections over the past year. Hey ho, new school in 2009

 

If I could control the temperature exactly i'd set it at 20 or 21. any lower and it'd be too cold for sitting working in. I do have to work in the room though - it doubles as my office. i'll post some pictures on monday to show you the hell hole

[Simcfc73]

I got one installed in January and am now feeling the benefit fully. Lowest it can be set is 21c and theres a distance barrier when you walk into my room.

 

Roll on June/July.

 

I won't mention August as only the workers are in school then.

[Joedetic]

I used to put ours on as low as it would go (mainly cause when i was in there i was stuck behind the rack where it's warm) and that was a nice frosty 18degrees. I think the preference was around 20-21 by the other techies / head of ICT

 

Problem is....when the power trips it didnt have enough time to reset and we'd be working away recabling when the builders tripped the breakers and when it came back on it was blowing VERY hot...we didnt notice and there was condensation starting to form on the rack. Shouts and panic to off the thing and wait for it to reset itself...not very amusing.

 

I think we found the setting for it in the end.

[Firefly_Transport]

You should maintaint he room at 18 - this allows a degree of headroom should the Air-Con fail to keep up.

 

Note that while a good server can keep itself runnning everytime it goes past its recommended operating temp you are reducing (at leat potential) its lifespan. You are certianly reducing the life of the fans. In my case the units will run with an ambiant of 38c and an internal of 45c - but thats skating on thin ice.

 

You must also remember that if you have any UPS battiers your are looking at serious problems if they exceed 24c.

[Colditzz]

You should maintaint he room at 18 - this allows a degree of headroom should the Air-Con fail to keep up.

 

Thats interesting as I was recently (last week) informed by our Air con man that any lower than 20 degrees C is likely to cause a static build up & condensation could start to become an issue.

[Guest richard]

At my ols school the server room which was my office as well was kept at 18 degrees by me and had no problems with condesation

[Colditzz]

I must admit to being slightly sceptical when I was given that temperature, however, he is the air con man, and I am not

[localzuk]

We maintain at 18 degrees also, and have no problems with condensation.

[Geoff]

The air con is set to 18 here.

[Anglo_Jaxon]

When our server room hit "40" 2 years ago I threatened to switch off the server and switches.

 

I was given a room fan... and asked "will this help?"

 

Our air con is now set to 18 ish

 

J

[Andrew_C]

By increasing to temperature to 20-22 or so, you won't affect the workings of your servers, but the AC will be working far less hard, and you'll save the penguins too!

[sidewinder]

I have ours at 19

 

We have 2 units - one predates me and was fine until last summer where it started to really struggle due to the amount of equipment, so we got a huge new unit fitted (£10k)

 

It copes perfectly now, I was sceptical as it didnt seem that cool during the winter but its been lovely on the few hot days we've had so far

[Firefly_Transport]

You should maintaint he room at 18 - this allows a degree of headroom should the Air-Con fail to keep up.

 

Thats interesting as I was recently (last week) informed by our Air con man that any lower than 20 degrees C is likely to cause a static build up & condensation could start to become an issue.

 

Thats a new one

 

How can static build up if its all earthed?

 

As to condensation, most Air-Cons draw the water out, so in my case at the moment its running out into a sink. To some extent having the room dired out is a good thing as hummity is much worse than just being hot.

[Firefly_Transport]

When our server room hit "40" 2 years ago I threatened to switch off the server and switches.

 

I was given a room fan... and asked "will this help?"

 

Our air con is now set to 18 ish

 

J

 

I would have said yes, can you turn around and bend over a tick :twisted:

[Firefly_Transport]

By increasing to temperature to 20-22 or so, you won't affect the workings of your servers, but the AC will be working far less hard, and you'll save the penguins too!

 

I am not sure I would want to only be within two degrees of the battery limits, on the other hand if you turn of the AC in my room at the moment it slams the temp up at 10c every 15 mins - so its a moot point.

[john]

I have one at 22 and one at 18, can force the new one down to 15 with an over-ride option, but it will only run at 15c for 2hrs then reset to 21c once its defrosted.

[wesleyw]

We have one big unit it can sustain 16 degrees indefinately I usually see how long my tech can handle it before he has to turn it up lol in the summer its a godsend though as the servers would be molten pools of metal. We are south facing so it gets incredibly hot. Usually have it between 21 -22.

 

Wes

[Guest]

we have 2 units, 1 as a backup but both set at 23/24 and running all the time

 

bit high i hear you say, well if temp gets lower then 22 our old Dell server locks up and needs a hard reset: bit like me really

[fooby]

Its interesting listening to the people here... its seems that most people sit in the same room as their servers.... hmm think ill make a poll unless it can be added to the main page?

 

fooby

 

p.s we live next door to our servers in a seperate office.

[enjay]

I'm presuming you're getting the aircon in order to keep the room below the warranty temperature of your servers, so any temperature which achieves that is fine - there is no "right" answer (as you can see from the ranges already quoted, and I've worked places which are even colder - 13C, brr!!). Remember that it is hotter inside your racks than it is by the aircon's thermostat, so chuck a thermometer in the hottest part of the room, and then use that as your guide - set the aircon to whatever temperature maintains that thermometer at a suitable temperature.

 

Bear in mind that, while it is nice to keep it a lovely 17C, the person who pays your electricity bill might think otherwise (as might the planet).

[Butuz]

Our server room is kept at about 22 degrees. When we move out of the server room and in to our office soon i will nock the air con down as low as it will go - probably 19-20. Cool integrated circuits = reliable integrated circuits!

 

Andrew

[dave.81]

As with most of you i live in the server office along with the Head of ICT. We have a little portable unit runs 24/7 and is set to it's lowest of 17c... current room temp is 23.1c and the rack temp is a toasty 27.1c. When it gets above 32 i turn the entire system off, although even that has failed to get a decent unit installed.

[iSteve]

We never had any cooling on our severs for many years. The last couple of years temperatures in the room in summer have often hit 40-42deg C. Some servers have been shutting down as they were too hot. Bless them.

 

Last year we were finally allowed to get air conditioning in the room. Prevention being better than cure does not work here - we had to have shutdowns / switchoffs to prove there was a heat problem before air con stopped getting scrubbed from the budget!