Article by MovinCool .
Small server rooms can usually get away with using a portable room air conditioner to cool the equipment. Failure to provide adequate cooling will lead to server crashes, and potentially a loss of business. For those with larger server rooms, or servers I more than one space, you will need to calculate the heat generation of your equipment.
Heat Load
The most important step is to determine the potential heat generation that you are likely to accumulate in the room. Fortunately, it’s not as hard as it sounds. You need to do some rough calculations to determine how many heat-producing objects you’ll have in the room. Here are some of the factors you will need to consider:
- The square footage of the server room itself
- Position of windows, if any exist in the room
- Number of server rooms your units will occupy
- Equipment that will generate heat (like a powerful computer tower)
People can also be a factor, but server rooms don’t generally have them. When you’re trying to judge how much heat your equipment is likely to generate, it’s helpful to base your calculations on the wattage each device is likely to produce. Remember that a PC power supply will only supply some of the power to a device; the computer might not use the entire allocation. You also need to take lighting into account, which is very easy to miss.
Once you’ve looked at all of the potential heat sources in the room, and come up with round figures to represent potential heat, add everything together to get a clue as to the tonnage you’ll need.
Determine Proper Size
A small unit will offer between 5,000 and 10,000 BTUs. A portable ac unit can easily fit in or near any windows you might have, but you have to make sure you have an outlet for exhaust. If you opt for a larger unit, it will usually start at around 12,000 BTUs or the equivalent of one ton of cooling power.
Final Thoughts
Although this guide contains some helpful starting points to measure out the BTUs in a server room, it’s best to have a technician assess your needs. They may be able to help you rearrange your space to disperse heat better, and may have recommendations on cooling systems to fit your budget.
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MovinCool sells portable air conditioners for home and industrial use. Find out how much tonnage you need to cool your server room with air conditioning units from MovinCool.