When server rooms heat up

Down here in the Tampa area, we’re rounding the corner into April and May where things will go from very warm to flat-out hot. And for those of you in other areas of the country, you might have a little bit more of a temperature deficit to overcome, but we’re willing to bet things are going to get warm there, too!

As such, it’s definitely time to start thinking about things like the overall temperature in your server room, where fighting excess heat is a seemingly never-ending battle. If things get a little too hot, you can cause substantial damage to your equipment and it can end up costing you a significant chunk of change in both replacement equipment and the lost productivity due to downtime. 

Today, we’re going to share some ideas as to how you can keep your server room temperature at a sustainable level and beat the heat. Let’s jump right in!

What you need to know up front

Talk to your average techy, and they’ll tell you the ideal temperature for a server room is 64-80 degrees and humidity should clock in around 45-50%. So the very first thing you’re going to do? Make sure you have a read on the temperature of your server room. If the temperature is above this mark, then you’re going to need to take action in order to bring it down. 

All about the airflow

Ventilation is a big thing and has become an even bigger thing with COVID, but the ironic thing is the same principles of containment actually apply here. Spaces that have poor airflow also have higher temperatures. If your server room is too cramped, heat isn’t going to have much area to disperse. If equipment is poorly laid out, heat can stack on itself. Simply providing better airflow in your room will help bring the temperature down a little bit. 

Laying things out so it makes sense

Most pros will tell you it’s a good idea to have aisles and racks that basically alternate between hot and cold equipment. This will help maintain better spacing and allows for a more even temperature distribution. Now, that hot air you’re worried about won’t be trapped. 

Servers only. 

Heat often kicks up when people take their server rooms and begin to space-share with other things from their business. While we’re always trying to create space and find new places to store old things, the server room isn’t the place to do it. Not only does this create unnecessary and risky traffic in the room, it also takes up space and restricts airflow. 

At the end of the day, the best thing you can do is to make sure the server room has some sort of central air or air conditioner inside it. If you can’t put in a permanent fixture, simply use a portable one. While the HVAC install might be costly at first, its minuscule when compared to the potential for the long term cost of all the other things that could go wrong. 

But really, you can put yourself in the best possible situation by doing things the right way up front. Buying the right equipment for the job and making sure you have a professional lay things out and conduct the installation. And then of course, just simply being more attentive to your system. The more you pay attention the better off it’ll work.