London Cool advises on Server Room Temperatures

To protect business-critical equipment from data storage problems or system crashes, it is essential to ensure that the temperature in server rooms or data centres stays within certain limits.

With many housing large amounts of equipment, the heat generated can potentially cause computers and networking equipment to fail as they are designed to work within a fairly narrow temperature range.   

What temperature is right?
Air conditioning should be considered crucial for any server room.  Technology experts recommend a server room temperature of between 18ºC to 27ºC and not less than 10°C or above 28°C.  Relative humidity should be between 45-50% to stop damaging static electricity building up. 

Even a few degrees too hot can blow a server chip or cause permanent damage to hard drives.  The cost of a serious server failure can be considerable – not only the cost of replacement, but lost online business, lost customer details, wasted staff time etc.

How do you maintain the right temperature?
Even if everything is working the temperature may fluctuate during the day or from season to season, and there is always the possibility of localized hot-spots around equipment giving off extra heat.

Servers run hotter at certain times of the day than at others and air conditioning systems sometimes run at lower power at night.  If a webserver suddenly starts to work hard because of a difference in time zones, the machine may heat up faster than the air conditioning can cool it.  

Newer machines run faster and often hotter as well, while data networks require more capacity to handle faster speeds, all of which increases the load on the air conditioning system.  If you’ve recently introduced new servers or modern switches, it might be time to evaluate your air conditioning system to make sure it is still adequate.  

It is also recommended that you install environmental sensors and monitors which will check humidity and temperature levels and alert you if they are reaching dangerous levels.  

London Cool has a 24/7 emergency or breakdown helpline (0800 440 444) and can supply portable air conditioners and fans with same day delivery.  These can be used to circulate cold air around server cabinets and create ‘cold corridors’ between devices to maintain a consistent temperature.

For advice on server room cooling, or for a free site survey for a fixed air conditioning system or additional portable air conditioning units, London Cool can be contacted on 0800 440 444.



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