I am currently looking for solutions to cool down and exhausting the heat that is currently being generated by our blade servers. Recently we migrated from 12 custom built tower servers to 5 1RU DELL 1850 Edge servers and 4 Dell 2950 Edge servers, incuding 1 2850 Edge server in 1 42U Dell Enclosure their are also 6 APC Smart-UPS 1000. In the room there is an existing return,and a heating and cooling duct that is in the room also but does not provide enough cooling to counter the heat that is being generated from the enclosure. The room which is about 90 sq.ft and has a drop ceiling, I have added up the BTU's that are being generated from the servers and the UPS are about 18600 BTU's. I have found numerous portable air-con's that can provide the cooling into the room that we need. The question that I have is about my solution for getting the hot air that would be trapped in ceiling above the room out and dissapated into the rest of the office space. Our entire office space is about 2400 sq. ft. The solution that I have come up with to this is to install 2 APC ACF301 Wiring closet ventilation units in the ceiling above the enclosure to draw the generated heat up and into the space above the server room. Then install flexible exhaust ductwork across the drop ceiling and direct it to either a duct juction that shares the junction with the portable air-con exhaust that is installed. Using the existing electrical outlets to power the ventilation units and the portable air conditioner. These cirsuits are seperated from the server circuits that are powering the servers. I would appreciate any forseen concerns or alternate solutions to this problem that anyone could suggest for this situation.
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it seems to me that dumping that kind of heat into the office space will make for a very warm summer.– Jim BNov 10, 2011 at 15:59
3 Answers
A portable spot cooler is certainly worth looking into. Since the room needs cooling year round, you should look at running a condensate line so you can use a condensate pump to automatically pump the condensate -- this way you won't have to empty the condensate tanks when they fill up. Most portable spot coolers have safety devices so they will shut off when the tanks fill up.
Here is a post that may be helpful.
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Agreed. If this is going to be a permanent solution then you definitely don't want to be emptying the tanks all the time. I spent one very long, very hot summer driving to the office twice every weekend to empty the tanks before we got a line installed. Nov 10, 2011 at 20:27
I've heard of people using portable units, although i think you may have issues with emptying the collected water containers. Mostly it seems like people go for a Mitsubishi mr slim device on the wall, or a ceiling mounted unit.
I've heard of people venting the air into the suspended roof without too many issues, as long as its big enough then mold shouldn't be an issue, but if its at all possible id say for got the wall mounted unit, and make sure the water inlets overhead don't run over the servers.
If you can swing it I would also suggest as @Sirex has that you go with either a ceiling or wall mounted unit. I have had bad experiences with the portable units - they are great for emergency or temporary cooling but they are not something I would want to run long term. I had to put up with one for six months while a server room was being redone was bad enough. The drainage was a problem as were power failures resulting in the unit not running when it was supposed to - you don't want to run an AC unit on your servers battery backup unit.
The wall / ceiling mount units also provide a second advantage. It is possible to have your condenser located outside, allowing the heat to be vented directly out. A small pump is also usually set up in this setup to automatically address the condensation issues outlined as well.
