30 Aug
2007
30 Aug
'07
1:09 a.m.
OK, I know some of you have done this -- Henk with his brick PDP machine
room in the Netherlands, at least!
Looking more closely into the power and other environmental
requirements for my Onyx2 and other rack SGI systems, it seems prudent
that I shouldn't attempt having these systems up and running without
the appropriate environment.
Fortunately the electrical isn't too bad -- 220 VAC, single phase.
Its more the cooling and ducting part that has me wondering. At the
moment, I'm not concerned with creating a building. I'm wondering
more about what would it take to build a "machine room" inside an
existing structure. Naturally, we're talking about building this on a
"collector" budget and not what you would do if money were no object.
Assume you have something like a warehouse with a concrete floor but
no warehouse-wide cooling situation. Is it feasible to build a small
climate controlled room inside this larger structure? Where do you
get the necessary A/C equipment for such a thing?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
30 Aug
30 Aug
2:17 a.m.
On Wednesday 29 August 2007 20:09, Richard wrote:
Assume you have something like a warehouse with a
concrete floor but
no warehouse-wide cooling situation. Is it feasible to build a small
climate controlled room inside this larger structure? Where do you
get the necessary A/C equipment for such a thing?
Depending on how much you're going to be running, there's three options.
First, use a wall-mount or windown-mount air conditioner. This runs
anywhere from a few tens of $ to a few hundred, depending on where you
get the A/C unit from. This is also the least "capable" and least
efficient method.
Second, if you need more cooling, you can set up a forced-air furnace
and A/C condenser, such as you'd find in a typical house. This will
probably run a couple k$. These are fairly efficient, and reasonably
capable for a few racks of medium density gear.
Third, you could go all-out (esp if you need a fair amount of cooling),
and get a Liebert CRAC unit. On ebay, you can get a used one for well
under $10k. Don't forget you'll either need a lot of potable water
(probably $$$ in Utah) or a separate water chiller to run and cool the
water the unit uses (with a closed water loop). Or, you can get a
direct Freon-cooled unit, etc.
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
2:26 a.m.
Assume you have something like a warehouse with a
concrete floor but
no warehouse-wide cooling situation. Is it feasible to build a small
climate controlled room inside this larger structure? Where do you
get the necessary A/C equipment for such a thing?
Sure.
and while you are at it, you can blow additional filtered air into that
room so that there is a very slightly higher pressure in your room than
the outside space. Then any leaks are outwards, and you can have
significantly cleaner air in it of hard drive repair, etc.
2:40 a.m.
In article <20070829182511.C47329 at shell.lmi.net>,
Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> writes:
and while you are at it, you can blow additional
filtered air into that
room so that there is a very slightly higher pressure in your room than
the outside space. Then any leaks are outwards, and you can have
significantly cleaner air in it of hard drive repair, etc.
Nice idea!
So for cooling capacity, do you just equate BTU generating capacity of
the machines to the cooling capacity of the A/C unit, after allowing
for a comfortable operating margin?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
5:09 p.m.
On Aug 29, 2007, at 9:40 PM, Richard wrote:
So for cooling capacity, do you just equate BTU
generating capacity of
the machines to the cooling capacity of the A/C unit, after allowing
for a comfortable operating margin?
That's what I do...but make that margin very, very wide.
Remember, one "ton" (of A/C capacity) is 12,000 BTUs, and one watt
is ~3.4 BTUs.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Farewell Ophelia, 9/22/1991 - 7/25/2007
2:25 p.m.
Richard wrote:
OK, I know some of you have done this -- Henk with his
brick PDP machine
room in the Netherlands, at least!
Looking more closely into the power and other environmental
requirements for my Onyx2 and other rack SGI systems, it seems prudent
that I shouldn't attempt having these systems up and running without
the appropriate environment.
Fortunately the electrical isn't too bad -- 220 VAC, single phase.
Its more the cooling and ducting part that has me wondering. At the
moment, I'm not concerned with creating a building. I'm wondering
more about what would it take to build a "machine room" inside an
existing structure. Naturally, we're talking about building this on a
"collector" budget and not what you would do if money were no object.
Not a bad idea.
Assume you have something like a warehouse with a
concrete floor but
no warehouse-wide cooling situation. Is it feasible to build a small
climate controlled room inside this larger structure? Where do you
get the necessary A/C equipment for such a thing?
I've gotten that sort of stuff on ebay. Just keep an eye on the
"Liebert" searches.
Peace... Sridhar
5:06 p.m.
On Aug 29, 2007, at 8:09 PM, Richard wrote:
Assume you have something like a warehouse with a
concrete floor but
no warehouse-wide cooling situation. Is it feasible to build a small
climate controlled room inside this larger structure? Where do you
get the necessary A/C equipment for such a thing?
The two easiest ways to deal with cooling are to use fans to
distribute the generated heat into the rest of the house (to be
removed by the main A/C unit) or to use a small portable A/C unit in
the machine room. In my last house I had to use a combination of the
two due to the amount of hardware that I was running.
The right thing to do, of course, is to install a dedicated A/C
unit. Look for information on "mini split" A/C systems...They are
relatively inexpensive, reasonably efficient, and very easy to install.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Farewell Ophelia, 9/22/1991 - 7/25/2007
6109
days inactive
6109
days old
6 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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cisin＠xenosoft.com -
legalize＠xmission.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
ploopster＠gmail.com