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Natural Environment Cooling


MoD_Box_CPU

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Condensation is all about dew point of the air in the surroundings...

 

So, if you use water temperatures that are below the dew point for your ambient temperature that's inside your case...might want to have preventative measures taken for condensation ;)

 

Cold air straight into the case won't do anything...it won't condense onto a warmer surface from how the dew points work :P

With the setup I have in mind condensation shouldn't be an issue. The outdoor intake will face the wall of the building as to not allow for wind blown rain/snow to enter and the indoor vent will face the floor so even if water or condensation do make it in it wont be in direct contact with the rack

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Google is actually planning on doing this, there going try putting a ton of servers up in some little town in Norway, with an abandon mill that use to pipe seawater in for air to water to air cooling, they said the ambient temp of town only got to 80f like one day of year and was below 60f most time and Google thinks that it may cut there power use by more than half if the plan is successful.

Edited by spectrascope

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To bring fresh air into a server room will need an inlet such as a wall cap (the dryer type without the damper) with a grille to keep out animals and installed high wall to ensure snow is not pulled in. Install a powered damper close after the inlet. Place the intake fan far in the building to prevent frost build-up. I am not sure which fan to use. Use a thermostat to control the fan and damper operation. Also speed control of the fan is something to consider. Insulated flexible duct will be needed. Speak with a heating contractor about bringing fresh air into a room.

If the server room is located on an exterior wall all that is needed to do is keep the door closed and lower the heat setting in the room. For rooms with thermostats this is simple, but rooms with air registers will need to adjust the outlet damper which will lower the room temp when the damper is closed further; This will result in the air which was going to the server room being sent to the other rooms in the bldg. The greater air will increase the temp in the other rooms, and if the air is large enough (I do not think one room will cause this) will introduce sound into the system.

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it is not about the air from the outside beeing wet, an that that would yield condensation. It is rather that the indoors air is hotter and therefore contains more water, and when that hot wet air mixes with the cold dry outside air you get condensation.

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I don't see the point in this, because only 4-5 months is Chicago even "cold". I live in Hammond, which is 10min away. So yea, you may get great temps through the winter, but in the summer it is still going to be hot and all this money spent will be for naught. It's a great idea, just would be better in a cold-year-round area, because servers are meant to be online 24/7.

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Was talking with a buddy on TS a few days ago and as 90% of my conversations do, it turned into a conversation about computer hardware. This topic came up when I mention that I lived in Chicago and was about to experience my very first northern winter (I'm stoked about it and everyone thinks I'm crazy). While discussing the option of hosting webservers in my place of business the conversation led to cooling them, which got me thinking. How feasible would it be to pull in cold air from outdoors, while keeping moisture out of course, to cool the servers during the winter. My knowledge in server upkeep and care lacks slightly and I wanted to get your opinions. What temperatures should I expect form a normal rack setup? Could performance be improved at all?

 

Please bear in mind that this will also be home to about 25 high performance PC's out on the main floor and I dont want to give my customers frostbite...bad for business ya know.

 

i live like a hour n a half west of chicago (that gettin into downtown belmont area) and my wifes from southern cali. be stoked, winters nuts around here sometimes.

 

i have done it before, mainly when i was trying to destroy a couple P4's with my "homemade cooling"

i used the left over tubing from the dryer, a 140MM fan off the back of a mini fridge, wired it all the way to my open computer

(i usually never leave sides on my computers, in them too much) those parts all could of been purchased for sub $20

 

HOWEVER, it generated ALOT of condensation. so if you want to do that, remember with humidity comes moisture, and when you warm up alot of moist air in a semi-closed enviroment your going to make some h2o

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