Server room cooling

[chris0320]

Hi,

 

We are creating 3d enviroments and rendering them so we just bought more servers to speed up the rendering, put them in a small room (about 3x5 meters - 190sqft), but it gets too hot in there with the AC that this office building we are in has.

 

We would need about 7-8kW / 25.000 BTU cooling capacity (the current setup would require about 4kW / 15-18.000 BTU, but in the future we are planning to add more servers).

I saw some good AC units that is for home use mainly for about a $1000, 7-10kW, but we don't render 24/7, so i think it would handle our server room as well. What do you think?

Should we somehow create airflow that moves fresh air into the room, is it necessary, or a simple AC unit is enough? (it would be pretty hard in our situation to create good airflow)

Portable cooling systems are too expensive for us, around $1200 is our budget if it's possible to do it with that amount.

 

The other thing is that on the shorter wall (3m - 10ft) are windows, 2m / 7ft tall. We were planning on putting some reflective film on the windows because the sun heats up the room, but then we have less money for the AC. Do you think it is worth it?

What would you do in this situation, and in a situation where money is not a problem?

Thanks!

[emosun]

Go on craigslist and buy a bunch of window ac units for like 10$ a pop. We once bought 6 crappy window ac units to cool a garage , we just sandwiched them between the floor and the door.

[scottyseng]

59 minutes ago, chris0320 said:

What would you do in this situation, and in a situation where money is not a problem?

Hmm, if money was no problem I'd say to install a proper split system AC. I think a rooftop unit would work as well, but the cost for that install is pretty high / I don't think they're small enough for what you need (I usually see them starting at 3 ton and up). I'd also say get rooftop if money was no object / the roof structure can support it...It's far easier to repair a rooftop AC unit over a split system.

 

For reference, 8KW = around 28,000 BTU / 12,000 = roughly 2.5 tons of AC cooling capacity(You want to round up / have more capacity than less). That's a fair amount of cooling you need.

 

I think you're probably stuck with several Window AC units if the budget is that low though. However, keep in mind you need to consider electrical as well. Pulling that kind of load probably means you need several dedicated 20 amp circuits to run the servers themselves and separate ones for the window units...they pull a fair amount of power. New electrical code also requires GFCI protection at the minimum for plugs for commercial use, that also drives the cost up further for you.

[leadeater]

A good home AC unit will work, I've had to put up with that sort of thing in the past with client server rooms. I think it was 3 IBM x3650 M3, IBM DS3512, large amount of networking equipment, 3 Eaton 9130 3kva UPS were all cooled fine by a 7KW AC unit.

[unijab]

If you have access to a 220VAC outlet..

The 21,0000 BTU window units only use about 7-8amps. I got one a month or so ago for 500-600 USD.

 

[Mikensan]

Have you spoken to the building owner?

[Andster29]

You could insulate the room and use a series of fans/ducts to circulate air from the windows. 

[aubryscully]

whole room watercooling

 

/s

[dalekphalm]

Keep in mind that you have to exhaust the hot air out of the room. Most portable or home-based AC units will exhaust the air out a flexible conduit, which is supposed to be attached to a window and sealed up.

 

You could see if there is already an exhaust vent built into the room, or windows that open. If neither, you'll need to ensure you can properly install the exhaust.

[chris0320]

sorry for the late reply, and thanks for answering.

 

The price of electricity is not a problem, we have many computers here, so we got used to the higher bills and have the budget for that and we are in Europe, not sure if there are the same strict rules about plugs as well, but if there are, the owner should look out for those rules (even if...)

 

...We are in an old crappy building for a few more months (hopefully not more than half a year), no built in ventilation, only the heating/cooling "radiator" that circulates hot/cold water, works pretty well actually when there are no high capacity servers in the room.

Rooftop wont work in this instance, it would cost too much for now.

The budget will be higher in a few months, half a year, so a proper cooling system will be set up, until then we are stuck with cheaper "temporary" solutions.

 

We put a reflective film on the windows as a first step, will need to give it a few days of testing though, the owner of the building didnt allow the AC unit to be installed because the building will be sold soon and they didnt want to bother with the paperwork related to installing the AC even if we are the ones paying for it, so now we are running only one of the servers, the others are turned off until the new owner gets the building and we get the papers for installing additional ACs.

 

Based on your answers only having the AC wont work? We need to ventilate the air as well? because the only option is to ventilate it through the windows, there are only tilting windows in the room, sealing that up wouldnt be fun, but we would do it if that could lower the room temps (there are not ventilation holes on the door and we cannot cut those, again because they are in the process of selling the building).

 

Im not experienced in server room cooling, especially not in ghetto methods of cooling a server room, so thank you for any help/idea.

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, chris0320 said:

Im not experienced in server room cooling, especially not in ghetto methods of cooling a server room, so thank you for any help/idea.

Should anyone be an expert in that 

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, chris0320 said:

Based on your answers only having the AC wont work? We need to ventilate the air as well? because the only option is to ventilate it through the windows, there are only tilting windows in the room, sealing that up wouldnt be fun, but we would do it if that could lower the room temps (there are not ventilation holes on the door and we cannot cut those, again because they are in the process of selling the building).

A closed room with just recirculating AC will work fine, you'd need a lot more equipment to have to worry about input air and output air for the room. The only issue with a closed room is humidity since the AC unit will dry the air out but again you'll be surprised how much air can get in to and out of a room with no open windows and a single closed solid door.

 

While not a perfect setup it's an extremely common one.

[Mikensan]

I'm not sure about your ceilings or floors, but one thing a company I worked for used to do was vent the "exhaust" air from the portable AC unit to the ceiling tiles. So they just cut out the perfect square and hooked up what would normally go to the window, to that space. Worked really well since that space isn't cut off by walls and had more area to spread out. Pretty much looked like this:

(If you have a raised floor, that would work but heat rises so it won't work as well)

[AshleyAshes]

3 hours ago, leadeater said:

A closed room with just recirculating AC will work fine, you'd need a lot more equipment to have to worry about input air and output air for the room. The only issue with a closed room is humidity since the AC unit will dry the air out but again you'll be surprised how much air can get in to and out of a room with no open windows and a single closed solid door.

 

While not a perfect setup it's an extremely common one.

Hang on, no. Air conditioning outright requires ventilation.  An air conditioner doesn't make cold air, it removes heat from warm air, it still needs a way to exhaust that heat.  If not the heat is exhausted into the same room that it's removed from, there's no cooling effect, plus there's additional heat that the air conditioner's machinery produces itself since it's not 100% efficient.  An unventilated air conditioner in a room is literally just a machine that makes the room hotter while burning more electricity.

 

This is also why opening your kitchen freezer won't cool your home, because any heat removed from the air in the freezer chamber is just being radiated out of the back of the machine into the rest of the kitchen.

[leadeater]

12 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Hang on, no. Air conditioning outright requires ventilation.  An air conditioner doesn't make cold air, it removes heat from warm air, it still needs a way to exhaust that heat.  If not the heat is exhausted into the same room that it's removed from, there's no cooling effect, plus there's additional heat that the air conditioner's machinery produces itself since it's not 100% efficient.  An unventilated air conditioner in a room is literally just a machine that makes the room hotter while burning more electricity.

 

This is also why opening your kitchen freezer won't cool your home, because any heat removed from the air in the freezer chamber is just being radiated out of the back of the machine into the rest of the kitchen.

I'm talking about standard wall mounted AC units where the evaporator is mounted on an exterior wall or on the roof and much smaller diameter pipes are used to the head unit/fan. 

 

[dalekphalm]

9 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Hang on, no. Air conditioning outright requires ventilation.  An air conditioner doesn't make cold air, it removes heat from warm air, it still needs a way to exhaust that heat.  If not the heat is exhausted into the same room that it's removed from, there's no cooling effect, plus there's additional heat that the air conditioner's machinery produces itself since it's not 100% efficient.  An unventilated air conditioner in a room is literally just a machine that makes the room hotter while burning more electricity.

 

This is also why opening your kitchen freezer won't cool your home, because any heat removed from the air in the freezer chamber is just being radiated out of the back of the machine into the rest of the kitchen.

Indeed the hot air needs to go somewhere. You can exhaust AC air into ceiling tiles, in a standard office building, because there will be ventilation as part of the overall HVAC system (though still not ideal).

 

Ideally, you're exhausting that air out a window, or into a proper ventilation duct.

 

EDIT: Ah he's talking about a system that pipes the exhaust, etc, out of the room.

[AshleyAshes]

Just now, leadeater said:

I'm talking about standard wall mounted AC units where the evaporator is mounted on an exterior wall or on the roof and much smaller diameter pipes are used to the head unit/fan. 

Oh, a Mini-Split, you mean one of those.  Okay yeah, never mind.

[leadeater]

6 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Oh, a Mini-Split, you mean one of those.  Okay yeah, never mind.

 

6 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

EDIT: Ah he's talking about a system that pipes the exhaust, etc, out of the room.

 

It's still best to have a source of natural airflow since the AC unit will dry out the air too much making the cooling efficiency less and increasing the risk of static build up but for a lot of people there isn't much choice due to cost and building restrictions but to use that type of cooling configuration.

 

Basically every school server room I've been in to uses that configuration and I've been in to a lot.

[AshleyAshes]

4 minutes ago, leadeater said:

 

 

It's still best to have a source of natural airflow since the AC unit will dry out the air too much making the cooling efficiency less and increasing the risk of static build up but for a lot of people there isn't much choice due to cost and building restrictions but to use that type of cooling configuration.

 

Basically every school server room I've been in to uses that configuration and I've been in to a lot.

Here in Canada we're like "Schools? Air Conditioning?  Ha ha ha! No!"  But now with global warming it actually is hot enough in Canada in spring and fall that students are sweltering. @_@

[dalekphalm]

32 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Here in Canada we're like "Schools? Air Conditioning?  Ha ha ha! No!"  But now with global warming it actually is hot enough in Canada in spring and fall that students are sweltering. @_@

One of the high schools I went to actually had the AC cranked so high every year that during the summer you literally had to wear a sweater inside, and you might still be kinda cold.