Looking To Cool Your Server Room?

Here are 6 tips from Cross Rental Services to help aid your business in maintaining a cooler server room.

Check the air flow

It is important to check that the server room has dedicated intake and return vents. This ensures that air from the air conditioning system is able to enter & leave the room efficiently when the doors of the area are closed.

It is also essential to measure the ambient temperature of the room and compare this with the specified temperature control of the room. If the ambient temperature differs from the temperature control then this means that there is inadequate air flow in the server room.

Think Smart

When designing a server room it is important to make sure that the server racks are moving the hot air in a different direction to the cold air intake. This can be achieved through positioning the racks in front of each other so that hot air is expelled into a “hot aisle”. Meanwhile cold air can be distributed to the units from the “cold aisle” channels.

Blanking Panels

If there are empty areas in your server racks then it is important to install blanking panels in these gaps. If blanking panels are not used then the effectiveness of the cool air entering the room will be disrupted from hot air being trapped in the empty spaces of the server racks.

Do Not Use The Server Room For Storage

Ensure that the only equipment stored in the server room is the critical server & networking equipment. If other materials are stored in the server room then this will reduce the effectiveness of  the air conditioning system.

Check The Lighting

Using fluorescent lights rather than incandescent lights will also make a difference when it comes to server room cooling.  Incandescent lights are highly inefficient with 10% providing light & 90% being wasted as heat energy. Therefore, it is important when designing a server room to install fluorescent lighting over incandescent lighting.

Cooling Equipment

For small to medium sized areas, Cross Rental Services will be able to provide portable air conditioning to carry out server room cooling. Our split type units such as the MCWS250 & MCWS500 are ideals for this application. This is due to the units having an external heat exchange box capable of positioning the waste heat energy up to 30 metres away from the area being cooled. These units are also suitable for this application due their small footprint, powerful output & manoeuvrability. Our ducted range is also capable of being used for server room cooling with them having the advantage of being positioned outside of the room whilst cool air is ducted in. Evaporative Coolers can be used to carry out spot cooling in server rooms, for example, on cooling server racks.

The best option for server rooms which are larger in size is chiller hire. Cross Rental Services’ chillers range from 5kW – 750kW and can be positioned outside of a building whilst connected to air handling units to distribute cool air around the server room.