Re: What is the risk of low humidity?

[DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

And Static electricity discharge is potentially damaging to equipment.

Now the most picky equipment is tape. If you see the specs for a server 
or a DASD drawer they are a bit more forgiving than for tape drives. The 
issue there being you are dragging bits of plastic across a metal head 
and wrapping and unwrapping said tape from the reels internal to the 
cartridge and the drive.  Get low enough humidity and you start to get 
static discharge inside the drive. When that happens you might be 
altering or erasing bits of your backups. This of course won't be known 
until you need to read them!

The only way to fix it, especially in a large facility is to add 
humidity at the HVAC units and all CRAC units have the ability do do 
that.  There are normally heaters in there to warm pans of water to add 
humidity in just these very conditions!!

        - Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 1/2/2018 8:55 AM, Steve Pitcher wrote:
> Lower humidity = higher risk of generating static electricity.
>
>
>
> Steve Pitcher
> iTech Solutions
> Office: (203) 744-7854 Ext. 176
> Mobile: (902) 301-0810
> http://www.itechsol.com
> http://www.iInTheCloud.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rob Berendt
> Sent: Tuesday, January 2, 2018 9:29 AM
> To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: What is the risk of low humidity?
>
> https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/8286-42A/p8ebe/p8ebe_tempandhumiditydesign.htm
>
> What is the risk of low humidity in a machine room with little personnel interaction (IOW prolonged exposure resulting in nose bleeds is not really my concern)?
> How does one remediate it in an internal data center?
> Are the guidelines above "recommended" levels, or damage will occur when exceeding these levels?
> I believe Power 8 equipment has overheat shutdown.  Is there such a thing for humidity threshold violations?  If so, at what levels?
>
> We have the monitoring equipment.  Our current action plan on getting notifications that environmental thresholds are being violated is to change the thresholds until the notifications cease.
> I did get a phone call to ensure that the general temperature within the building was comfortable for human occupancy.  Outside it is currently -12 Fahrenheit.
>
>
> Rob Berendt
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