Spot Cooling

Wed Jul 26 23:40:55 PDT 2006

On Wed, 26 Jul 2006, Danny Howard wrote:

> Let's say you just started at a small company with a smallish server closet
> that had no climate control and was running really hot.  (We'll probably max
> out towards 12 servers.)
> 
> Let's say you wanted to get a little portable A/C unit in there to help
> alleviate this problem.
> 
> Let's say you weren't sure how much power you could run in, and ventilation
> might be difficult ...
> 
> And let's say you knew absolutely nothing about A/C technology.
> 
> What sort of things would I be looking for in a unit, and what do I need to
> watch out for?
> 
> It sounds like I may need to drain water, and/or ventilate the unit, and
> I'll have to be areful where I plug it in.
> 
> Does anyone have a paticular favorite unit?

Hi Danny.

We occasionally have to augment our flaky air conditioner with these 
robby-the-robot units from MovinCool, which we rent by the week in 
times of need : 
http://www.movincool.com/product_cp26.shtml 

All we have to do to set them up is run a duct for the hot air rejection 
up above the room's drop ceiling.  Yes, this just dislocates the problem 
but it is somewhat better than having the netapps crash due to overheating.

If I were looking for something slightly more permanent but still on 
the cheap side, I would head towards what are called "package" units, 
the most common of which is the canonical hang-it-out-the-window box. 
If you don't have a window handy, a ceiling mount package unit like 
this guy would be a nice fit:
http://www.movincool.com/product_cm12.shtml

The next step up is a split system, where the 'split' is between the 
evaporator (room return->fan->cold refrigerant->output ducts) and 
condenser (hot refrigerant->fan->heat rejection exhaust) coils. 
The brand name with cachet here is Liebert but I have heard good 
things about the APC infrastruXure systems. 

Based on your description, this kind of system is probably more than 
you're after, but I mention it because there is something incomparably 
sweet about the sharp tang of really god-damn powerful air 
conditioning keeping your machines nice and comfortable, and that's 
something you're only going to get with an appropriately sized and 
datacenter-specific A/C system. 

In any case - for getting up to speed on datacenter power and cooling 
I recommend checking out APC's white paper collection. There's some 
very useful information in there (check out the BTU->Tons->Watts table 
at the end of WP-11) and you're exactly the audience for which they're 
intended. 

Hope this helps.

-- 
 - Eric Sorenson - N37 17.255 W121 55.738 - http://eric.explosive.net -
 - Personal colo with a professional touch - http://www.explosive.net -