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A Micro-A/C for a Server Closet?
DiZNoG asks: "I work from home and run two businesses from there. Sick of server and switch noise in my home office, I've been thinking of taking an old hallway closet that used to house the furnace (since moved) and turning it into a literal server closet for my various servers and networking gear. I have 4 servers and various networking gear and even a system for getting everything in and accessible worked out. Bonus, the room already has power and is perfect placement for my access point (already secured, thank you!) However, I am running into problems finding a small air conditioner for the size of room. It's literally 15 sq. ft. and maybe 100-125 cubic feet total. By my estimates that's something on the order of 150-250 BTUs (or less) with the hardware. Does anyone on Slashdot know of micro A/C units to keep such a small area in server friendly temperature efficiently? I did see this homebrew action, but I'm looking for much less maintenance."
I'd recommend one of these. The twin fan design can be set to exchange, and the controls can be set to certain temperatures so that you're not wasting energy in the winter.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
If it was used for heating at one time perhaps you could use a fan to fee the air into the ducts in the winter months (assuming your winter months are like my winter months
Trolling is a art,
I'm assuming that the through-the-window models won't help you, but one of the portable ones might. To pick one at random, consider this portable A/C unit. The advantage of something like this, as opposed to the window fans that some others have suggested, is that it should come with an exhaust hose that you can channel to either the furnace's exhaust pipes, or to some other appropriate outlet elsewhere in your home. Something like that ought do do exactly what you need here.
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
If the closet is adjacent to a bathroom, you can do what a friend of mine did--cut a hole in the wall and pipe the exhaust heat from the closet server into the hollow area behind/beneath the shower/bathtub. Not only does his server stay nice and cool, but his wife never complains about a cold bathtub again!
Oh, wait! If you keep the intake side as it is above, but you have only one exhaust tube through the door, with the computer exhausts exiting into the room, you can attach to it a realtively ( compared to the computer fans ) powerful fan blowing out of the room. This will draw extra air through the computers, keeping them cooler and the extra volume of air will keep the room cool.
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Check the RV market - there may be something small that won't leave you with a buttload of water to take care of as well. Of course, most of the RVers I know go the cheap route and use a small window shaker unit - under $100 at walmart, home depot, etc. Heck, I've got one to run with my generator for when the power goes out for a week like happened to me with the 'canes last year.
Of course, you could vent it instead. Use just enough fan power (blowing into attic or out or whatever) to create a very small negative pressure - you don't want to AC the world. If you should need heat elsewhere, block off the vent, reverse the fan, and leave the door open. My dual AMD rig provides a nice 5 F. boost in the room it lives in.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Just put a fan on the ductwork that should still be there from the old furnace blowing the heat out through your house. Then you get the bonus that it helps heat your house in the winter, and it'll use your existing a/c to cool it all off in the summer (if it pulls in the air from under the door, and blows it out from the cieling). That way you don't have to wire in anything more complicated than a fan, and everything'll still stay nice and cool.
Search for it; it's what you need. Not cheap, but doing something the right way rarely is.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
I mean, we are routing packets and not wood here, right?
Assuming a few things about your setup, this is the solution that I would use (and have in the past).
Get an extra ATX power supply. Doesn't need to be real powerful or anything. Then purchase a couple of computer case fans. I'd get the 5.25" kind, because they spin slower and will last longer while still putting out a decent CFM rating.
Cut a hole about 1' from the bottom of the closet door. Mount a fan so that it blows the air in here. This is your intake. Put a filter on it if it makes you happy.
Cut another hole about 1' above the higest piece of equipment in the closet. Mount a fan so that it exhausts the hot air from the closet.
Connect both of the fans to your power supply and then set the power supply on a nice wood shelf. Connect power supply to the UPS that your equipment is running on.
Given the small load that you discussed, I would think that this setup would have you totally covered. You _MAY_ need to go to two sets of intake fans, but you should never need more than one exhaust.
Don't just set an AC in the closet, as that will actually raise the temperature.