back to article Reader needs Aircon help

Reg reader "PG" has mailed looking for advice on "a suitable air conditioning unit for a small office/data centre." PG says the facility has "no windows, only a door to the outside world" and is approximately "6m (l) x 3m (w) & 2.8m (h)." "It's over 33c in here today and a few of the non-critical servers have shut down (rack …

  1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    Size isn't everything...

    One key piece of information you're missing is the power consumption of all the equipment in the room.

  2. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
    WTF?

    Yellow Pages

    Am I missing something vital, but why not contact a local air-con company? Is PG so far off the beaten track that there are no local suppliers?

  3. jake Silver badge

    I wish there was an easy answer for this.

    Unfortunately, there isn't. There are entirely too many variables in the question ""I have a single-car sized garage in an undisclosed location, with unknown insulation, unknown available power, and hardware consuming an unknown amount of power, that I need to turn into conditioned space; can you help?" ...

    Suggestion: Call out three local HVAC companies, and get three estimates. Make sure each company knows you are talking to two other companies. Do not name drop between companies! This probably your best option from a cost/benefit perspective.

    Or, if you want to wing it, head to your local large "home center" and ask their "expert" for advice on this kind of installation in your area. Then take the recommended kit back to the shop, install it & keep your fingers crossed.

  4. Jan 0 Silver badge

    "windowless room" suggests that it's deep in a building. Are there ducts, or can you drill through to the outside? Without an external heat exchanger, you won't achieve very much.

    As an aside, to Jake, I'd call an air conditioning company to avoid having embarassing conversations with High Voltage or High Vacuum engineers. The FLA "HVAC" is Highly Ambiguous.

    1. jake Silver badge

      @Jan 0, Context is everything ...

      ... I rather suspect that in this conversation, there is absolutely zero ambiguity whatsoever when one uses the term "HVAC".

      I have been putting in servers since the Glass House days, and have never had anyone ask why I needed high vacuum or high voltage AC to keep the hardware cool when I bring up newly required HVAC needs.

  5. Trollslayer

    The first thing

    Is to have the door ajar.

    Seriously.

    If management fail then ask for £5k for air con.

    1. Chairo

      Re: The first thing

      The second thing is to put a big ventilator or two in the open door and blow out the heat. Perhaps you can survive until the aircon people arrive.

      Oh, and better get someone to install it for you. The pipes between the heat exchange unit and the AC are not trivial to install.

  6. Darren Sandford

    A temporary improvement would be to rent portable air con units, stick the vent pipes out the door, and close the door as best as possible.

    1. NotBob

      Or stick the vents into management (or beancounter) offices until better locations are approved...

      Of course, if this is in an industrial setting, window style AC through the wall venting to the industrial floor seems acceptable in these parts.

  7. chris 143

    Free cooling

    In most cases you'll get a lot more use out of a large fan, unless you've got a lot of money to spend cooling active heat sources (servers) can be difficult.

  8. JWLong

    Probably something between 12k-18k BTU will do.

    https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mitsubishi%20air%20conditioning

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