I have a little server room here at my work. It's more like a closet. 5' x 10'. We have 5 servers, routers, hubs and 2 monitors. We currently keep the door open to let the heat dissapate but last week a janitor closed the door by accident and when we came in the morning, the servers either froze up or shut down because of the heat. So now we're looking in to getting some kind of air coditioner for the room. I was wondering if anybody out there had any suggestions. I know nothing at all about ac units except that it's supposed to cool down the room. Any tips, models, suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks

Whatever you do, don't buy a Goodman. We've got one in our server room and I hate it.

We spec'd a system whereby the server room was separately climate-controlled from the rest of the building, and this Goodman unit is a special in-wall system where the heat exchanger is on the roof and the freon gets pumped down to the wall unit.

The problem with the unit is that each time we have a power outage, it shuts off and stays off, even when the power comes back on. So if the power goes out on a weekend, I come in Monday to find my servers cooking.

I've had techs come in to work on the the thing to fix the problem multiple times, and they still have not fixed it. They've gotten it to work so that it at least starts up and recirculates the air after a power outage, but the heat exchanger on the roof still does not engage, so all it's doing is recirculating warm air.

It sounds like all you need to to get some airflow through the room, so rather than going to all the expense of AC it may be easier to put one of those air grates in the bottom of the door, and an extraction fan in the ceiling to draw the air through.

You may though want full AC if you are planning to expand your server room though.

Also, if you do go with the fan, don't put the switch next to the door, otherwise your janitor will probably turn it off when he leaves

Well, we have the money to spend, and I want to make it cool, not just at the room temperature.

I was thinking maybe something like this, but I'm not sure...

http://www.costco.com/frameset.asp?trg=product%2Easp&catid=103&subid=337&hierid=339&prdid=10022654&log=

Have you looked at Liebert? Their business IS computer support.

http://www.liebert.com/dynamic/catprodlist.asp?pid=4&cycles=60HZ

Why don't you just run a new vent off your existing AC into the closet ceiling and add a vent to the bottom of the door. Our server room has its own 2 ton unit, but then we have 27 servers running 24/7.

Why don't you just run a new vent off your existing AC into the closet ceiling and add a vent to the bottom of the door.

Because then in the winter, it would do the opposite of what he needed it to do.

Liebert is king, but there are other decent options for a small room. When you say you have the money, I don't want to guess at what kind of dough you are talking about. Also, how long do you plan to be there? How much can you invest (and maybe lose if you move?) Do you have access/rights to the roof?

In a similar situation some years ago (about 8 servers and some routers) we most definitely did *not* have the money, and we would have thrown in a cheap window unit except that the building was in a historical district and window mountings were a no-no.

We wound up using one of these Sanyos . It was great. Easy to use and quiet. They need to be plumbed/wired up to the roof, though. If you really have the money and a roof, I'd call a few HVAC contractors and have them cook up a proposal.

[edit: IIRC, I think that small Sanyo cost us about $4000 installed in 1993]

Some of those Sanyo wall-mount units look suspiciously like the Goodman unit we've got right now. I wonder if they're the same thing rebadged?

Some of those Sanyo wall-mount units look suspiciously like the Goodman unit we've got right now. I wonder if they're the same thing rebadged?

Doubtful, unless Sanyo has moved its manufacturing to Texas. Maybe an issue of who copied whose design? I've seen a lot of those Sanyos since, many as retrofitted AC in small hotels in Europe, also in a lot of the newer bottom-tier US hotels like Candlewoods. Inexpensive to install (built-in thermostats, infrared remote control, minimal wiring) and the ones I have met worked well for what they are.

Interesting, that Goodman page seems to say they own and/or manufacture Amana. Amana *used* to be the grand, gold standard for appliances. Not a market I pay much attention to. Have they slid?

Dunno. Maybe the big ones are made in texas and the little wall-mounted ones are licensed from another company such as Sanyo. Or vice versa. Who knows?

Sometimes matching up the brand names with the actual manufacturer is pretty tough. A brand name is just a sticker on the casing...

Maybe the big ones are made in texas and the little wall-mounted ones are licensed from another company such as Sanyo.

I'd guess it's a case of copying. The closest match I could find was between this Sanyo and the Goodman depicted in this PDF. Similar, but slightly jazzier cosmetics/louvering on the Sanyo. Of interest, where a bunch of the other heat pump and condenser PDFs say "MADE IN THE USA", this PDF remarkably does not. Probably not an omission, and I'd guess your intuition is correct but that it is a design copy/knock-off.

Ah, what we get when we try to save $1.48 in labor costs.

That's very close to the Goodman we've got, but a tiny bit different in the details, like the indicator panel on the lower right.

That's very close to the Goodman we've got, but a tiny bit different in the details, like the indicator panel on the lower right.

I leave it to you to complete the matchup. Perfide Sanyo!

(Or is that more properly "Perfide Goodman!"?)

In reply to:

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suggestions would be appreciated

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Yes, sack your fscking janitor!

Seriously, we've got three full height bays full of servers and assorted audio and video equipment. We found a cracking air conditioner at the local a local diy store for about £200. We managed to reduce the temperature noticably, the only thing we needed to do was duct the hot air outside and drain the moisture tank every week.

We had a janitor come into our office and try to plug in his vacuum cleaner. He chose the wrong socket and destroyed a server along with all the work in it. Once we'd told his company how much the equipment cost and how we would re-coup it from them, they decided not to keep the poor guy on. Can't say I was upset.....

Janitors aren't allowed to come into our data center at all. (several hundred servers, 4 air handlers, generators, etc) We have a guy who's knows a bit about electronics (and what not to touch) come in every couple of weeks as a part time job on the weekends to clean/dust the racks and floors. That might be something to consider. Then again, it does sound like a pretty small shop.

Right now in my apartment, I have my desk in my dining room, and my computers in the next room over (a little breakfast nook that's mostly used for storage - BIG aparment). No noise that way, but it gets warm in the summer so I have to open the door. I'm about to move into another apartment (running away from roommates), and plan on doing the same thing. But, I doubt I'll have a spare room like in this one, so I'm looking for a large closet next to my office area for the same purpose. I'm pretty worried about how I'm going a vent a closet with 2 or 3 computers in it.

We found a cracking air conditioner at the local a local diy store for about £200

That sounds like a bargain! I have promised myself A/C for the bedroom for a while now because I can't sleep when it's too hot at night. What DIY store did you go to?

Ok what i suggest is find out the BTU/Hour that you need to cool. For a close enough idea total all the wattage in the room. For example you have 3 servers all with redundant power supplies (2 in each), one monitor,and a switch. The PSUs are all 450w, the monitor is 90w, and the switch is say 15w.
So you'd use the formula BTUs/Hour=max watts/0.65*3.413.
It should come out to an AC unit of at least 14675.9 BTUs. Now I'm not sure as to who's got the best AC units but that in my opinion is just a minor detail but I hear that APC has good in room ones. Otherwise nothing can stop a Train... LOL

Hope that helps.

B&Q, it has to be a superstore, or you can order it off their website.