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Environmental Concerns for a Server Room?

Posted by Cliff on from the external-worries dept.

christian_thoma asks: "My company is currently in the preparation phase for building a huge new manufacturing facility. While reviewing the site plan, I've discovered that there is both a cell phone tower and high voltage lines within 100-150 meters of where the server room is going to be placed. Do I need to be concerned? Are there any special considerations when designing my server room that I need to be aware of? Has anyone else had to deal with a similar situation?"

5 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Too far away... by DjReagan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Inverse square law means the electromagnetic fields given off by both of those will have dropped right down to negligible amounts over the 100-150meters. You really shouldn't worry about it.

    --
    "When I grow up, I want to be a weirdo"
    1. Re:Too far away... by menscher · · Score: 3, Informative
      Inverse square law means the electromagnetic fields given off by both of those will have dropped right down to negligible amounts over the 100-150meters.

      Too bad the inverse square law doesn't apply for the high voltage power lines. It will just fall off as 1/r (where r is your distance from the lines), not 1/r^2. You're right about the cell phone tower, though.

      Oh, and yes, IAAP (I am a physicist.)

    2. Re:Too far away... by MrWim · · Score: 3, Informative

      The inverse square law applies to point sources, you can imagine that the points which are equidistant from a point is a sphere, so all the radiation is shared out over the surface area of the sphere 4r^2, so the intensity is proportional to 1/r^2. Power lines are lines, so the equidistant points form a cylinder, surface area 2rh, so the intensity is proportional to 1/r. HTH

  2. Precautions by Ropati · · Score: 5, Informative

    I wouldn't be overly concerned with the RF interference being generated at the site, but you should review the matter.

    First, I would suggest that you have the site tested for RF levels. The tests should be fairly inexpensive. From the results you can decide if precautions are required.

    You still need to consider future RF issues in case the cellular company decides to upgrade. It would be prudent to have some RF grounding brought into the server room and extend the ground to the racks and cable runs. Well grounded equipment will minimize any RF issues.

    Multiple grounding might actually cause issues if there is stray AC from the high voltage. You can check for stray AC by having some ground rods placed at the site and check for AC potentials between the rods. A single low impedance ground is the best solution, but some electrical contractors don't understand the requirements.

    Also, the cell tower could easily cause interference with WiFi or other RF equipment. If your new plant is going to depend on low power radio IT connectivity for either the plant or for IT, you should have an interference study done.

    --
    machinator omnis sine licentia
  3. The Practice of System and Network Administration by Gustavo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The book The Practice of System and Network Administration has a few excelent chapters covering everything you need to think about when planning a data center. It's a great book.

    --
    Gustavo.