Re: Computer room cooling

Whatever you can do to get the cold air to the front of the equipment will really help with cooling; with the exception of some/ most network gear (which flows side to side).

The lab I recently put together is not exactly efficient at cooling, however the center of the room is the "cold" aisle, and heat is pushed towards the walls:
http://carleynet.net/familypictures/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album73&id=IMG_20130719_144517_314

The wall mount A/C unit is directed to blow the cold air towards the center (cold) aisle and that really makes a difference! Since it's a lab, we were able to experiment a bit with thermostat setting and airflow direction.

There's also the problem of CRAC outlet air temp vs. room temp. If you are able to direct outlet temp to the inlets of your servers etc, you can worry less about room temp and more about the outlet temp of the CRAC. Our datacenter pushes 65 to 67 degrees at the outlets under the floor. The room can be/ is warmer, but the equipment is able to suck up consistently cool air. Keeping the equipment inlet temperature constant is going to be more critical than a cool temp.

I could go on and on, but unfortunately I've got to get back to work.

Clay


On 1/30/2014 7:14 AM, rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Ok, your data center kind of blows mine away.
And the other image you posted was really nice.
However, for those of us without under floor cooling,
and with more than one rack,
I was wondering if lining up the racks,
having ducts push cold air down the front of the racks where the fan
intakes on most equipment seem to be,
and ducts sucking the hot air up the back of the racks where the fan
exhausts on most equipment seem to be,
would be a good solution?
Possibly with alternative air conditioning to the room to not only control
the overall room but to also back up the other unit in case of unit
failure.
Granted, you'd have to have those deep racks that would allow air flow
down front and back.


Rob Berendt