Cost-Effective Server Room Air Conditioning?

at0mic26 writes "I am currently tasked with finding a cost effective solution to our 30+ degree Celsius server room. The only air conditioning currently provided is a single duct pipe from one of two air conditioner units. I was thinking of stealing air from the second air conditioning unit with some sheet metal work, but it likely will not be sufficient — and would not have tolerance for both AC units being offline for any amount of time. An ideal supplemental portable AC unit is what I am after, however I'm finding it cost prohibitive, with $600+ humidity controlled AC unit, plus 20 amp socket requirement, plus contract work to make a hole in the wall for outside drainage so that the unit does not flood the place. What sort of successful cheaper air conditioning solutions have you come up with?"

Comments

Celcius?

[Anonymous Coward]

Silly Americans.

Antarctica

[ohxten]

Move the room to Antarctica, turn off the heat.

Re:Antarctica

[Shadow Wrought]

Move the room to Antarctica, turn off the heat.

Yeah, but if he's running Windows the penguins down there will attack.

Re:Antarctica

[Beezlebub33]

Iceland is pretty much the perfect place then. Lots and lots of geothermal energy, and it's pretty cold most of the time.

And it's got Icelandic girls. And Bjork!

woooooosh

[Anonymous Coward]

Dry ice.

Just imagine the theatrics.

do what CIHost does

[trybywrench]

just stick a boxfan in there.

I toured CIHost's Bedford TX datacenter a few years ago. I saw a boxfan blowing on a bunch of servers and a single power strip plugged into 4 or 5 of those servers that was stretched across to a wall outlet so that it was about 8" off the floor. Pefect to trip over nevermind the walmart quality parts.

tour was over after i saw that.

keginator

[bugs2squash]

from your budget, you clearly only have one server in play, so put it in a refrigerator.

Cut a hole in the door to let the cables in and seal around them with that expanding foam stuff in a spray can.

Sounds like that would max out your budget.

Re:keginator

[eln]

If the room is that hot with only one server in play, the room is probably the garage of a house, in which case he just needs to follow this simple procedure:

1.) Get a large cardboard box. Poke holes in the top for ventilating hot air out.
2.) Cut a big hole in the side of the box.
3.) Wrap box with insulation.
4.) Put computer in box.
5.) Knock big hole in wall between garage and main house with a sledgehammer.
6.) Place the box with the hole in its side flush against the hole in the wall.
7.) Place box fan in the house, situated to blow air into the hole.

And Voila, cheap cooling. Alternatively, you could put the server in the main house, but seriously, that's just a cheap hack of a solution.

Also, he should ask for his pay in cash in the future, because the company clearly has no operating capital and will probably be bouncing checks very soon.

Re:keginator

[fred fleenblat]

1.) Get a large cardboard box.
2.) Cut a big hole in the side of the box.

I remember now, Andy Samberg did a how-to video about this on SNL.

Fund raiser and cooling at same time.

[BitterOldGUy]

Better yet, rent the room out for birthday parties with those big 5 gallon tubs of ice cream. Put fans on the ice cream to cool the room and it helps to serve it because it'll be softer. Then when you have enough money for an air conditioning unit and contracting work, cancel the ice cream parties.

See! Problem solved!

Re:Simple...

[couchslug]

"Let the room overheat and replace all the computing hardware. So what if you're down for a week?"

Don't forget the BOFH option.
Back everything up.
Wait until meltdown, then be the hero for restoring the new systems. :)

Re:Simple answer is don't mess around

[Nefarious Wheel]

A major retailer in the US (and our single big customer at the time) built their own little computer rooms in their dispatch centres. We supplied a little GA-440-based computer and software that did a bit of inventory work for them back in the late 70's. They installed one of the domestic air conditioners they sold (which did match the BTU rating we specified). One of the service calls we had was traced to fried equipment, so we investigated -- 55 degrees C in the computer room -- turns out they did everything pretty much spot on, except for having the aircon's air inflow and outflow both in the same little room.

Sometimes there is no substitute for basic knowledge of physics...

Re:Simple...

[Warll]

You sure you`re thinking of the right BOFH? The one I know would do something more like this:

Backup nothing

lock Boss or some lusers in server room along with any old hardware

Go on Junket

Come back and blame mess on now dead Boss/Luser

Buy new hardware from whomever is willing to give the best kickback.

Re:Simple answer is don't mess around

[Curtman]

Another no no is to exhaust an air conditioner into a balcony enclosed with glass. I've seen that done, it's a great show as long as you are on a floor above, and park far far away.

Re:Maybe

[blair1q]

How far is it from Antarctica?

Re:Not much you can do

[sharkey]

Is that more or less dangerous than dihydrogen monoxide?

Re:Maybe

[ignavus]

Damn! It is a really long way from Antarctica.

No hope for me getting cheap cooling then, here in northern Greenland.

Re:How many servers?

[Buchenskjoll]

I'm not American, so if the room averaged 86 degrees, I would take my clothes off, pour water on the servers, drink some vodka and beat myself with birch brushes. And BTW, I'm not Finnish either.

Re:HVAC design for Server rooms

[Cow Jones]

Assume you are going to have to pony up $10,000 (USD) to solve this problem.

Oh come on. A fishbowl and a portable AC would cost $505.50.
For the "priceless" picture, click here.