How to use server room air conditioning

High COP Inverter air conditioning will save money in a short space of time

It is advised when purchasing server room air conditioning units to have energy efficient inverter systems as server room air conditioning will run 24 hours / 7 days a week and the inverter will save energy and equipment failure. Generally cooling is only required for server room cooling but in the UK most air conditioning units are inverter heat pump units which are set to cooling permanently. All server rooms and COMS equipment even modern blades give off heat and need to be constantly cooled otherwise the equipment overheats and shut down causing major problems for your business. It maybe worthwhile having a portable air conditioning unit available for emergency breakdowns or if you are awaiting a part. Some Mitsubishi Electric inverter air conditioning units boast a 0.15 GBP a day running cost (Mitsubishi Electric MSZ-FD25VA Wall Mounted (2.5kW / 9000Btu) High COP Inverter Air Conditioning) so the payback time over a year would be within 6 months compared to fixed speed equipment.

Cheap Air Conditioning

Cheaper air conditioning equipment is usually fixed-speed air conditioning (non inverter) and rarely come with a low ambient kit so if the temperature gets to cold outside then the indoor unit will not cool properly because the inside temperature is hotter than the outside, which is a common fault in UK winters. The cheaper air conditioning units also have issues with parts so if your unit breaks down the part required may take weeks to source or may require a complete replacement.

Spare Air Conditioning Capacity

It is always advised to have spare capacity of cooling in the server room. That means either a portable air conditioning unit or two of the same capacity units fitted with the aim of either sharing the capacity or equalling it when one unit fails. The later always works out better for future server room expansion as a new air conditioning unit will no be required to meet the new heat load. As discussed earlier if a part fails you may have to wait weeks for it to arrive.

How Much Cooling Capacity do we require?

The server equipment is only as good as your power supplies. If you have a small server room of around 10 Sq/M and operate modern server room equipment which is electrically rated at 10kw including power supplies with a coefficients of performance of 85% (Google's server power supplies are more than 90% efficient. HP's server power supplies have reached 94% efficiency) then you can expect to lose 15% to heat or 1500 watts. Take into account the size of the room and add 130 watts / square meter or 1300 watts. The server room will require 2800 watts of cooling. It is good practice to go slightly larger in case the server room is expanded with equipment at a later date..

Summery:

Server room air conditioning case study:

A client's server room using a fixed speed air conditioning unit for a server room air cooling was in need of re-newel. We advised using a Mitsubishi Heavy Industrial - SRK71ZE-S1 Wall Mounted (7.1kW 24000 Btu) hyper inverter wall air conditioning unit which is a hyper efficient air conditioning unit with a category "A" energy product label and designed for continual use which many server room air conditioning units require. The old fixed speed units used a lot of energy because of the start up current associated with inductive loads older fixed speed air conditioning.  The Mitsubishi Heavy Industrial - SRK71ZE-S1 Wall Mounted (7.1kW 24000 Btu) hyper inverter saved money as it was cost 0.57p to run at full capacity. The unit has excellent parts and service back up and has a expected life span of 10 years depending on use.

How not to use server room air conditioning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k_PLiGAjmU

Key points to think about when getting air conditioning for server rooms

• Use inverter air conditioning as it will save energy in the long run.
• Cheap air conditioning units do not work in cold weather because they do not have a outside fan speed controller (low ambient kit)
• Use a established brand so if a part fails on you Server room air conditioning you are not waiting 8 weeks for a part.
• Sometimes it is worth having two server room air conditioning units because if one fails you still have some cooling.
• To establish the heat load of you servers add up all the power supplies of your servers rack and assume a 40% loss to heat. i.e- If you have 10 servers with 400watt power supply the total watts will be 4000 watts. assuming a 40% loss the heat load will be 1600 watts.
• Work on a average watts per/Msq of 125watts, so if you server room is 5 x 5 meters you will require a base of 3.5kw/12000btu + the heat load.
• Advised manufactures for server room air conditioning Mitsubishi, Daikin, Fujitsu, Sanyo.
• Always use auto-restart units for server room air conditioning units as power failures can shut budget air conditioning down.
• If your server room is temporary (ie short term lease on building) or has building restrictions then portable air conditioning maybe your only option.
• If using portable air conditioning for your server room then make sure it recycles the water for better cooling performance of that it has a integral condensate pump.
• Use a established business who will not be going out of business for your server room air conditioning installation as the warranty of the air conditioning is with the supplier not the manufacturer.

We offer a complete service to IT Managers, Building Managers and Server Room / Computer / COMS room managers. Call us for a comprehensive quotation on varied air conditioning manufactures to suit any budget on new installations. We have worked with many Blue-chip organisations in helping them develop their server room air conditioning.

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Contact Us: Call: +44(0)845 567 7080  for details on server room air conditioning quotations.