Computer Room Ambient Temperatures

[KenRad]

I was wondering if one of you computer experts can help me. I am a Mechanical Engineer in the Facilities department of a manufacturing plant. We have a computer room that is packed full of computer equipment --- servers for our LANs, I suppose --- made by Compaq and HP. All of these units have internal fans that draw air in the front and discharge to the top or back of the cabinet.

What are some typical ambient temperature specifications for a room like this? I am currently maintaining the entire room at 70F or below, but one of our MIS folks believes that it should still be cooler for the sake of his equipment. I have good air distribution throughout the room, with no hot spots.

 

[Scotsdude]

Get the guy who's complaining to check the internal temp of each machine. If it's not to high (below 45 celcius preferably), then tell him to go sling his hook. Tell him if he wants extra cooling in the room, it comes out of his department's budget.

Scotsdude

 

[pigfish]

We try to Run our server room at around 16 degrees Celsius or lower. from my calculations 70F works out to be about 21.1C. This is a perfectly fine temp for server equipment, anything up to 25C would be ok in my book.

The cooler the equipment the more efficient it will run and the longer it will last without hardware failure. In an ideal world with an untapped budget id have my server room running at a constant 5 degrees C or thereabouts.

Hubs/switches and routers are not is important heat wise, but it would worry me if they where operating in environments that are over 40 degrees Celsius.

 

[MYHVAC]

I have a follow up question. here it is.....

I need to estimate a temperature rise and how quickly it would threaten to halt computations inside a computer room (Max. temp. reached and how fast it will be reached). Room is 37 X 30 X 10H with a max. combined load is 150,000 BTUH. Could someone point me to a set of guidelines to perform such calcs. The idea is to let the techs know how much time do they have before temp. in the room reaches dangerous levels (???)and by the way, what temp. is considered to be excessive? Thx.