Calculating Your Server Room Cooling Requirement

How Server Room Cooling Differs From A Traditional Cooling Calculation

When it comes to server room cooling there are a number of additional factors you must take into consideration such as:

• Number of windows and their size
• Heat generated by the server equipment such as servers, switches & routers
• Heat emitted from the lighting in the server room

Thus, this blog post will be a step by step guide on how to determine the cooling duty for your server room.

Cooling Needed For The Room

To determine the BTU duty of the room, calculate the area of the room in metres and multiply by 337.

Server Room Area BTU duty: Width x Length x 337

Windows?

The majority of server rooms do not have windows, however, if there are windows then you must work out the following calculations:

North Facing Window BTU: Window Area (width x length) x 165

South Facing Window BTU: Window Area (width x length) x 870

If there are no blinds on the windows in the room then multiply the calculation by 1.5

Total Window BTU duty: North Facing Windows BTU duty + South Facing Windows BTU duty

Occupants

Multiply the number of occupants that will be in the room by 400BTU:

Total Occupant BTU: Number of occupants x 400BTU

Server Room Equipment

The biggest source of heat in the server room will come from the servers themselves. The wattage provided by the server equipment is the maximum power consumption of the units. Add together the collective wattage of the servers, switches & routers & multiple the amount by 3.5.

Equipment BTU: Equipment Collective Wattage x 3.5

Lighting

Lighting BTU: Total Wattage of Lighting x 4.25

Overall Cooling Duty

Overall BTU duty: Room Area BTU + Window BTU + Occupant BTU + Equipment BTU + Lighting BTU

Overall kW duty: Overall BTU duty / 3412

This is the total cooling duty you will need to cool the server room cooling.