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Cooling Solutions for a small server room?

By lump_16 ·
While I generally welcome nice warm weather here in Ohio, I really wasn't thrilled with the 110+ degree temperatures that visited my server room this morning.

From the start this really isn't the ideal spot for a server room but I'm stuck with what's given to me for the time being.

It is a small 12' x 8' x 12' room storing 8 full sized Dell Poweredge servers.

The AC unit for this room is a small in-room 3 foot long wall-mounted AC.

99% of the time the room is kept at a cool 65 - 70 degrees. But every so often a problem like this happens where perhaps the power goes out to the AC unit and when it kicks back on it can't handle the amount of heat.

I can't find any info on the AC unit with like BTU info. The only thing on it that looks like anything to me is a marking saying 1/16 HP.

Any suggestions on perhaps some better performing products on the market designed for small rooms such as this? Preferably something geared more towards PC Server room applications rather than home residential applications.

Thanks in advance for any help!

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Cooling your datacenter / Server Room Temperature Control

by Peconet Tietokoneet In reply to Cooling Solutions for a s ...
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Cooling capacity is measured in Tons.....

by robo_dev In reply to Cooling Solutions for a s ...

A guess would be that a small unit like that is probably a glorified window AC unit which are typically only around 8,000 BTU(2/3 Ton)

There are 12,000 BTUs per ton, and without doing the math, you probably need something like 1.0 to 1.5 tons.

http://www.dtc1.com/portable-air-conditioners/calculator.asp

You really need to do remote monitoring for temperature.
http://www.temperaturealert.com

One approach would be to leave the old unit in place and add a spot cooler. You would need a power feed, but then you just need a place to exhaust the heat outside the room. This would give you some redundancy.
http://movincool.com/

My guess is that the 1/16th is the fan motor rating.

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Is this a split System or a Window AC Unit here?

by OH Smeg Moderator In reply to Cooling Solutions for a s ...

By your description it's a Split System and the 1/16 HP is for the Blower Fan that blows cold air out of the Evaporator to cool the place down the remainder of the unit will be outside the building where the compressor is mounted and will have the Full Power Ratings listed on it somewhere or at least it should have.

If this temp that you saw today was the result of a Power Outage there isn't much that can be done as whatever you use will be affected just the same way the next time that the power goes out so you should make sure that the place is open so that the heat generated by the Servers doesn't cause the temp in the room to go thought the roof.

However if the temp just goes up because the servers are being used then the AC unit needs servicing and regassing so that it is working correctly. Any Gas leaks in the Lines between the Outside Compressor and the Evaporator will cause the performance of this unit to degrade substantially till it stops cooling anything at all.

So if the temp just climbs with the AC unit working you need to speak to a AC Mechanic to either get the unit serviced or replaced with a suitable unit that can keep this room cool enough or get the thermostat turned down lower so that the AC unit is working harder and providing enough cooling capacity.

A 3 Foot long Evaporator in a Split System is more than adequate to keep a room that size cold provided that it is correctly installed and working properly so if it's not you need to look what is going wrong here and allow a Professional to fix it up.

Col

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