Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside. My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?

2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly welcome!

Thanks,
Richard

Richard Conway wrote:

Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside.

then theres really no solution. If you remove the heat, it has to go
somewhere, simple as that. You need ducting for any system to work.


My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?

of course, they simply move the heat into those other places


2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.

that would do the same, expect that the power used by the ac, all of
which turns to heat, would not be added as well.

Opening the door would also do the same, except the leccy used by the
fan, which all turns to heat, would not be added.



Any ideas or suggestions greatly welcome!

there is no solution unlses youre willing to either
a) put in ducting to the outide.
b) just move the heat out the room and into the rest of the building,
by leaving the door open.


NT

wrote:
Richard Conway wrote:


Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside.


then theres really no solution. If you remove the heat, it has to go
somewhere, simple as that. You need ducting for any system to work.



My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?


of course, they simply move the heat into those other places



2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.


that would do the same, expect that the power used by the ac, all of
which turns to heat, would not be added as well.

Opening the door would also do the same, except the leccy used by the
fan, which all turns to heat, would not be added.

We do prop the door open during the day, but it is locked when I leave
the office at 5:30. Would the fan idea be an effective solution for
keeping the heat down during the hours when the door is closed? Would
there be any issues with condensation or anything if we blow hot air up
into the cooler ceiling void?

"Richard Conway" wrote
We do prop the door open during the day, but it is locked when I leave the
office at 5:30. Would the fan idea be an effective solution for keeping
the heat down during the hours when the door is closed? Would there be
any issues with condensation or anything if we blow hot air up into the
cooler ceiling void?
You need a flow of air - cooler air from outside replacing warmer air. You
could do with a ventilator at one end of the room and a fan (either
extractor or blower) at the other. Then you can get a flow of cool(er) air.
The warm air from your server room would be shared around your office.
Roof space - I'd avoid that because of the potential for dust contamination.

Richard Conway wrote:

Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in

Given that you can buy small portable units for under 300, does hiring
make sense?

a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside. My questions
a

How far from the outside world is the room?

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not

The portable units tend to have a 4" diameter hose that you can route
wherever you like.

confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?

They will warm the office slightly - but one assumes that the heat from
your server room already makes its way into the rest of the office
ultimately anyway, so you may not notice much difference. You will be
adding the extra heat generated by the aircon unit itself.

2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.

It will work to an extent, but be less effective. Also where will the
replacement air be drawn from when the door is shut?

(the same question will also apply to mobile air con since this will
also throw some of the rooms air out of the vent)

The air con solution will be pushing dehumidified air into the ceiling
void and hence will be less likely to cause a condensation problem. You
will of course need to remeber to empty the aircon unit of water on a
frequent basis if you don't have anywhere to drain it locally.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Richard Conway ShoobiddyDoobiddyDoopDoopDoopWah@com wrote:
wrote:
Richard Conway wrote:


Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!
snip
We do prop the door open during the day, but it is locked when I leave
the office at 5:30. Would the fan idea be an effective solution for
keeping the heat down during the hours when the door is closed? Would
there be any issues with condensation or anything if we blow hot air up
into the cooler ceiling void?

Have you considered adding a large grille to the door, to allow ventilation
through the closed door?

Toolmaker wrote:
"Richard Conway" wrote

We do prop the door open during the day, but it is locked when I leave the
office at 5:30. Would the fan idea be an effective solution for keeping
the heat down during the hours when the door is closed? Would there be
any issues with condensation or anything if we blow hot air up into the
cooler ceiling void?

You need a flow of air - cooler air from outside replacing warmer air. You
could do with a ventilator at one end of the room and a fan (either
extractor or blower) at the other. Then you can get a flow of cool(er) air.
The warm air from your server room would be shared around your office.
Roof space - I'd avoid that because of the potential for dust contamination.

Get a horticultural spray mister, and use that with a large fan, or
a vane compressor, it will lay the dust as well.

Richard Conway wrote:
You can also get portable AC units which have an outdoor heat rejection
radiator which is filled with water. There's then a twin hose, with
hoses about 35mm OD which goes back to the indoor unit. I've hired them
before but can't recall who from. Very expensive at this time of year &
I don't know if this is any more practical that the 6" air hose job.

I'd hope the spray idea was a joke.

In article ,
Richard Conway ShoobiddyDoobiddyDoopDoopDoopWah@com writes:
Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside. My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?

They are a complete disaster and make the room hotter.
They can work if you have air ducting in the ceiling which they
can break into, and have the heat extracted. We did this in an
office where the aircon was going down for a few weeks to have
the outside chiller unit replaced (a giant crane job to lift
the old one out and bring the new one in).

2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly welcome!

I've been in the same situation for a short period prior to getting
aircon installed. Things you might do:
o Move any computers which don't need to be in there someone else.
o Look at doing some server consolidation -- generally easy for unix
applications where people have no worries about running some ~20
applications on one system, but can be harder for windows applications
which seem to prefer (or whose admins prefer) dedicated machines.
o Switch off systems which aren't being used (be surprised how often
this is overlookeded). Also generally no reason for monitors and
the like to remain switched on except when someone's reading them.
o Switch off the lights when not needed -- could be 5-10% of the heat
generation.
o A fan helps avoid hot spots, and helps more rapidly transfer heat
to the boundaries of the room where it escapes.

--
Andrew Gabriel

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:26:19 +0100, Richard Conway
ShoobiddyDoobiddyDoopDoopDoopWah@com wrote:

Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside. My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space.

Not come across them, out of a window more likely.

The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?

2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly welcome!

In one of our offices they built a "hutch" around 4 or 5 servers out
of timber and polythene sheet and put a portable air conditioner in
there with them with the waste hot air and the replensihment air
ducted directly to/from outside. That worked.

Bear in mind the exhaust elephant's trunk hose gets very hot, losing
heat to the room depending on it's length (but you could insulate it),
and the air conditioner consumes electricity importing electrical
energy into your sealed system that ends up as extra heat.

Mostly the only benefit is being able to sit in a stream of cold (ish)
air whilst the room itself is hotter than ever.

Best see Andrew Gabriel's postings passim.

Is it possible your budget could run to one of these? Or similar from
a cheaper source. This is more better :-)

Stock no: 494-6269 On www.rswww.com (Noting the length of the pipes)

DG

Richard Conway wrote:

Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside. My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?

2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.


That is not a totally bad idea - teh last one BUT there needs to be
somewhere for the hot air to get out.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly welcome!

Thanks,
Richard

Richard Conway wrote:

wrote:

Richard Conway wrote:


Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside.



then theres really no solution. If you remove the heat, it has to go
somewhere, simple as that. You need ducting for any system to work.



My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?



of course, they simply move the heat into those other places



2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.



that would do the same, expect that the power used by the ac, all of
which turns to heat, would not be added as well.

Opening the door would also do the same, except the leccy used by the
fan, which all turns to heat, would not be added.


We do prop the door open during the day, but it is locked when I leave
the office at 5:30. Would the fan idea be an effective solution for
keeping the heat down during the hours when the door is closed? Would
there be any issues with condensation or anything if we blow hot air up
into the cooler ceiling void?

If you are moving on do you care?

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:26:19 +0100, Richard Conway
ShoobiddyDoobiddyDoopDoopDoopWah@com wrote:

2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.

Hi,

Probably best to have a 'box fan' blowing air in at one corner of the
room and another tile removed at the other corner to let the warm air
into the roof space.

The outgoing warm air should rise to the top of the roof space,
minimising recycling of the air into the room.

In any case, try a SMART monitoring program to read the temps of the
hard drives, if they are below the maximium, probably 55c, they should
be fine in the short term.

cheers,
Pete.

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:26:19 +0100, Richard Conway
ShoobiddyDoobiddyDoopDoopDoopWah@com wrote:

Just thought I would add to the already excessive number of heat related
posts!

We have a small server room that is getting very warm at the moment. We
can't justify installing fixed air con as we will be moving in a few
months. Having looked at the possibility of hiring a portable air con
unit, it seems that this is also an impossibility as the room is not in
a position to allow us to vent the hot air to the outside. My questions
a

1) I beleive you can get portable air con units that vent into the
suspended ceiling space. The space above the ceiling in question is not
confined to the room itself but spans the whole of our open plan office
space (about 2000 sq ft.) Are these units any good? Would they simply
cause our (already warm) office to get even hotter?

2) If using the roof space is feasible - what about simply installing a
fairly powerful extractor fan into one of the ceiling tiles that would
suck the hot air from the room and into the roof space.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly welcome!

Thanks,
Richard

You would do better to outsource your server room to somebody who can
do it properly. The cost of a melt down, would probably be so high,
that it will scare your company into paying the bill.

The "Reliance DataCenter" in Bangalore is one we use - and have no
probloems with it.

Ric