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Keeping a Data Center Cool on the Cheap
jedimaud writes "You've heard of bubble wrap, and the boy in the bubble -- now, here's a datacenter in a bubble. I work for a government agency that, like most, is trying to cut back some costs, and one of those costs is a REAL datacenter. So, we decided to wrap the whole thing in plastic (including two 1.5 ton ACs). The room hovers about 83 degrees, however, the racks in the bubble (ok, more like a termite tent) stay about 10 degree cooler. Here's some pics to check it out."
Do not place datacenter over head. Keep out of reach of children.
... and then they built the supercollider.
"(including two 1.5 ton ACs)"
"Ton" here refers to a "ton of cooling," a measure of power. It was originally intended to mean "the power required to melt one ton of ice in 24 hours." Since that varies based on a bunch of conditions, it was pegged at 12,000 Btu/h.
When they changed the definition of "calorie" to mean 4.1868 J, converting Celsius to Fahrenheit and grams to pounds gives us a conversion factor of 1 ton of cooling being exactly 3 516.852 842 066 7 W.
In other words, each a/c unit is about 5.25 kW of cooling each, or 10.5 kW total.
Oh, and 83 degrees Fahrenheit is about 301 kelvin and a ten-degree Fahrenheit difference is a difference of 6 kelvin.
(According to my old HVAC prof, there's been little to no progress in "metricizing" the industry in the US. Having used both systems in his course, I'd say I prefer US units, if only because the unit descriptions on things like insulative properties make more sense when the units for thickness and area don't naturally cancel each other out.)
(And it could be worse. Most home a/c units are labelled on the box as putting out x number of Btu, suggesting they're disposable.)
(Well, they probably are...)
MirrorDot is upf 7bbfed3ed64/index.html
http://mirrordot.org/stories/e90ad5cab7cfb4869cc0
keeping a datacenter cool? Thats nothing..
try moving to india to try and get your job back from dell only to get dysintry and heat stroke, lose your wallet and end up working in low grade indian miget porno to get enough money to buy a can of coke, only to get typhode.
Bubbles...pfff...
Ps. I'm writing this from Iran, send help.
Ever wonder why computers are made of metal? Why the plastic pieces are made of plastics that meet flammability performance standards?
Tiny Tim raises his hand
Yes, Tiny Tim?
Please, Mr Deacon Sir, so that if some source of ignition is present, the computer does not turn into a fireball spewing deadly poisionous smoke, Sir!
Very Good, Tiny Tim. And what happens if someone hangs up huge sheets of generic, flammable plastic in an area with lots of potential ignition sources?
Please, Mr Deacon Sir, sooner or later it catches fire, and people die. If these boneheads are lucky, Sir, someone from the Building Facilities or the Building Inspector will see this website and make them take it down, Sir.
Very good, Tiny Tim. The rest of the class is to read up on Flammability.