In a server room, cooling is often the largest power draw after the IT equipment itself. Many rooms are overcooled or let hot and cold air mix, so the air conditioners run harder than they need to.
Manage the airflow
- Arrange racks in hot aisles and cold aisles, with the fronts of facing rows turned toward each other
- Fit blanking panels in empty rack units so hot exhaust air cannot recirculate to the front
- Seal cable openings in the raised floor and rack sides
- Consider hot-aisle or cold-aisle containment as power density grows
Set sensible temperatures
ASHRAE recommends an inlet air temperature of 18–27 °C at the front of IT equipment. Many rooms still run their air conditioners at 18–20 °C out of habit; raising the set point step by step within the recommended range, while watching temperatures at the equipment inlets, can noticeably reduce cooling energy.
Monitor and maintain
- Place temperature and humidity sensors at the front of the racks, not only at the air-conditioner vents
- Track PUE (total facility power divided by IT equipment power) to measure efficiency
- Clean filters and heat-exchanger coils and check the refrigerant regularly
- For high-density racks, consider in-row cooling units placed close to the heat source
Realtek designs and delivers modular server rooms, racks, UPS, cooling and environmental monitoring systems. Contact us for an assessment of your server room.
