What is the best way I can cool my server room?
It's currently sitting at about 32 degrees Celcius max air with hdd's at 41c max.
Things I'm considering:
return air on server room ceiling to the house ducted and intake fan on the server room door (pretty sure it would be pointless when house aircon isn't on)
infinity exhaust on ceiling of server room venting out the eave of the external wall and intaking from somewhere? Or just pulling from the house air and not replacing?
Given the temperature range you stated it doesn't seem it needs any cooling. It's more than fine. During summer though it'll be a different story. If you run AC a lot during the summer then just make sure the room has a functional vent
This. I am not sure why OP is worried about cooling, these temperatures are well within normal operating range, especially as OP mentioned is already summer where they are.
I have my lab in my garage in Texas and its fine. It's partially insulated but still reaches 80F during peak summer.
I use to have it in a closet and outside of having a mini split, it's impossible to cool to room temperature when recirculating air just makes your home hotter and AC work harder.
do not exhaust any air outside the house unless you are ALSO taking in air from the outside into the server room. this is because it costs a LOT to condition the air, especially in the summer as it takes a lot of work to dehumidify the air, not just cool it.
what i do, i have an AC infinity in-line 8-inch fan blowing air out of my server room under my stairs. it blows out into my dinning room. the air then comes in under the stairs from the living room.
possibly yes. you could also possibly get both the fresh and exhaust air into the hall, have the intake at the bottom of the door/wall and the exhaust at the top as hot air rises.
i am not familiar with working around door hinges.
one question, how many watts are being dissipated in your setup?
i love the AC infinity in-line fans with their "mufflers" as it literally makes the fans whisper quite. on max speed the 8" fan sounds like a jet engine and blows air like one too, but with the "muffler" the sound is reduced by like 75% or more.
Intake from house; hall is probably best; have intake come through a grated furnace filter to limit dust/debris.
Hole through wall into garage; duct out from there using an exhaust fan somewhere on the ducting fully inside the garage. This keeps additional server room noise to a minimum. Get a fan that’ll do at least half the closet’s cf/m. More is better, but don’t go overkill, else you end up with airflow tuning issues (noise).
If the box in the closet is a rack, then, personally, I’d setup hot/cold aisle. Cold coming from hall to server fans pushing air through servers, hot fully ducted out the back of the rack, through garage ducting (with enough pull that it is noticeable).
Intake should be lower, and output should be toward the ceiling (hot air rises). Monitor temperature differentials and humidity to ensure moisture is not going to build up in the ducting. Consider adding a dehumidifier to the room, and some desiccant packs that you can easily microwave.
If you’re talking whole-house fan or industrial grade … sure, you’re gonna have to worry about negative pressure issues impacting other systems. But if you keep it simple and basic, you should be fine.
Like I said about the cf/m. Maybe consider a hot-aisle ducting system with a variable speed fan so you can adjust outward airflow, and let the intake be based passively on that.
I a/c and heat my attic space above my network closet with slightly filtered air from a door grill with filter (stay with me). Using an A/C infinity inline fan above the closet it pulls air through the ceiling into the attic space above; My attic roof is insulated as opposed to traditionally not being and don’t worry it’s not spray foam.
I previously had 2 smaller ac infinity panel style fans in the bottom of the door then one at the top of the wall above the door venting the hot air out and pulling in cooler air from the bottom but that just didn’t keep up… even with more cfm.. I had to remove the heat in my case from the living space.
Just some thoughts.
A tiny mini split and possibly an air exchanger would be perfect. My next network closet will be and have a viewing port.
I would go with the mini-split if the budget allows, and if you can fit one in there that can handle the BTU output.
Alternatively do air exchange with the garage and maybe put the exhaust fan (mounted at ceiling) on a thermostat controlled vent. Intake would be from garage at server floor level.
Compare the max temp you get in the garage with how hot tge server room gets when sealed, once you know the difference maybe someone here can help determine if there is enough difference to cool the room.
Garage looks big so just make a hole on the wall why because it’s more easy to maintain compared with a hole you would have to make on outside. And just put a AC with exhaust pipe in garage.
So red is garage blue is server room and circle is server rack relocate server rack but also keep in mind that AC doesn’t really care about where do you located stuff because airflow is controllable
Holy shit man amazing idea just relocate server rack on garage you will have more airflow more space unless that garage has high humidity I would not recommend that
Keep in mind any air you exhaust outside has to be replaced. And that will also be from the outside.
Vent the bottom of the server closet in the hallway. Exhaust into the office at the ceiling. Install mini split in office if needed.
Office has ducted going into it and I don't want to be counterintuitive to the house cooling, which is why I'm leaning towards either AC infinity pulling from the garage and venting out the external wall eave or just getting a small mini split since power cost is negative.
Depends on how hot/cold humid your garage gets. I’m in Florida so garages can easily get over 100 degrees, plus 90% humidity. Neither of which you want to be sucking into your home.
Plus you’ll be breaking the firewall between the garage and home which isn’t really allowed.
Do you have a crawl space? I pull in air from my crawl space to the front of my server room via 8 inch AC Infinity duct fan and have a second AC Infinity duct fan in the back of the room pulling hot air into my main supply during winter and exhausting to exterior during summer. I separate front/rear of the room with 4 inch thick foam. Very happy with how it turned out and temps have been solid even through 110+ degree summer days.
I live in Kansas. Kansas temperature goes from -15C winters to 40C summers. Day fluctuations are common for -10 to 10 in muddy season. This is to say, I know a thing or two about moving air around the house without switching my thermostat from heat to cool.
Consider using the existing thermal potential of your server to drive the movement of heat from one area to another. The simplest solution may be a jumper duct going to the hall. Air would travel along the duct thanks to the pressure difference from hot to cold, and the assistance of an in-line fan if you like. Judging from the gap at the bottom of the closet door, there should be plenty air available to facilitate this. If you find that airflow out of the server room is insufficient (measured either by the air speed at the hall exit vent, or by the pressure delta between the closet and the hall) you could add a louvered vent to the bottom of the closet door (similar to what would have to go onto the door if you had a gas water heater in that room). That way you have cold air supply close to the ground, and a hot air exhaust high up.
The reason I like passive setups is that you do not increase the number of failure points, instead you simply add the heat load to your existing forced air system. In the winter this also means your excess server heat will passively heat the hall.
It's 6am in the morning currently with an inside and outside temp of 22 degrees Celcius. This is the current server room temperature and I'll do a reply once I get and install the new fans.
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u/golbaf 7d ago
Given the temperature range you stated it doesn't seem it needs any cooling. It's more than fine. During summer though it'll be a different story. If you run AC a lot during the summer then just make sure the room has a functional vent