Data Center - cooling, design

[Scott_Arm]

Anyone know of good resources on designing cooling for a data center? Actually, I'm not really designing a data center, it's basically a closed lab, but I'm fairly limited in what I can do. I've got a closed room, a little over 1000 square feet. It isn't a proper lab facility, so I can't install raised floor without removing the drop ceiling. I've got a refrigerant loop for an air conditioner. The type of stuff I'm looking for is recommendations on placement of an air conditioner, types of air conditioners, air flow and strategies to prevent hot/cold air from mixing.

Thought I'd take a stab in the dark and see if there was anyone with experience on here. I'm in a constant battle with facilities over this stuff, and I'm not happy with the decisions they make. Their solution is basically to throw more and more air conditioners at the problem.

 

[Miksu]

I'm not sure if you already know this but Web Hosting Talk has a very active forum and I've found some quality info from there. They have a sub-forum dedicated for the Colocation and Data Centers.

 

[Davros]

Are these rack mounted servers
if you mount them end up it will improve heat dissapation
eg:


edit also most hot air will be pumped out of the back of the server try to separate this area if you can

 

[Scott_Arm]

Well, it's actually telco equipment, not servers, but in principle it should be the same. The equipment has front to back airflow through the rack.

 

[Davros]

Something like this



ps: sorry about spelling it out as if your some kind of retard

pps: you could build the seperator out of hardboard or mdf or 1/4inch plywood

 

[Grall]

Don't equipment racks have built-in facilities for hot air extraction these days, considering how much power servers and routers and whatnot tend to draw these days? Seems curious if one would have to mod that in post-purchase...

 

[Scott_Arm]

Yeah, you can get racks like that, with ducting to vent into the ceiling or whatever.

 

[MfA]

The type of stuff I'm looking for is recommendations on placement of an air conditioner, types of air conditioners, air flow and strategies to prevent hot/cold air from mixing.

HP simply put barriers around the hot isle and routed the hot air from above back to the AC with ductwork :

http://www.intel.com/it/pdf/air-cooled-data-centers.pdf