Here's a question...how many CFM do I need to exhaust the hot aisle? I'm planning on getting a 4" in-line vent to do it. The one I have picked right now is 105 CFM. The hot zone itself is roughly 68 cubic feet. So in theory that fan will exhaust all of the air roughly one and a half times per minute. Is that too much? Not enough?
Project GDC (Garage Data Center)
- Thread starter briandm81
- Start date
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- I would use minimum 2 fans (maybe 3 depending on CFM required, so you have some redundancy)
- I would try to use 6-8" fans for more volume less high-pitched/sound
- Are you going to use the same fan setup for 'intake' for when no-AC is being used?
- RE: exhaust/CFM I would make sure you're not creating vacuum and pulling through the chassis and it's exhausting the hot only, so if you're intake is 200cfm and exhaust is only 105cfm I'm going out on a ledge here but I don't think that's sufficient. Now, if the AC is 200CFM but it's circulating air and you've got the same 105cfm intake then that sounds fine. Maybe someone else has more experience here
My experience comes with my experiments of mini-datacenters as well as venting shops from welding/plasma/etc type fumes...
- I would try to use 6-8" fans for more volume less high-pitched/sound
- Are you going to use the same fan setup for 'intake' for when no-AC is being used?
- RE: exhaust/CFM I would make sure you're not creating vacuum and pulling through the chassis and it's exhausting the hot only, so if you're intake is 200cfm and exhaust is only 105cfm I'm going out on a ledge here but I don't think that's sufficient. Now, if the AC is 200CFM but it's circulating air and you've got the same 105cfm intake then that sounds fine. Maybe someone else has more experience here
My experience comes with my experiments of mini-datacenters as well as venting shops from welding/plasma/etc type fumes...I like the dual fan option, but I may do that down the road and just add a second. I have limited space to exhaust things (and existing dog/cat door that I'm converting). As to the intake, I hadn't really decided. The A/C will just be cooling the entire room as I have it planned right now. I assumed the intake would occur based on the fans in the servers. Part of what I've read is that you want to block off all of the openings in your rack with spacers and what not to ensure that only the equipment takes the cool air and you don't waste any. So perhaps I need to figure out how many CFM my servers will be pulling in and based the exhaust on that? This is complicated....or I'm just over-complicating it.
So if I were trying to match the CFM of my A/C at high, then it would look something like this:
Amazon.com: Hydroplanet™ 6 Inch Duct Booster Fan,Exhaust Fan High Cfm, 6" 240 CFM (6 Inch): Home Improvement
240 CFM vs 247 CFM...close enough?! Then I can just run the 6" hose from there to the A/C intake? I feel I will have to experiment to get it right...
Amazon.com: Hydroplanet™ 6 Inch Duct Booster Fan,Exhaust Fan High Cfm, 6" 240 CFM (6 Inch): Home Improvement
240 CFM vs 247 CFM...close enough?! Then I can just run the 6" hose from there to the A/C intake? I feel I will have to experiment to get it right...
I plan on putting the Nidec fans back in the Supermico cases. There are 5 per...and I will have four of those...and then I have two other random cases as well. I may swap those at some point in the future for supermicro cases as well...but that's after I get past the hell I'm catching for building my own data center.
I'm looking at building a server room in my garage. I'm curious what the small room inside for the rack is for?
My setup has a window in it and I figured I could use that to exhaust the hot air out of the room by an aircon could bring air in from the garage.
My setup has a window in it and I figured I could use that to exhaust the hot air out of the room by an aircon could bring air in from the garage.
Sure. The basic setup is that there are two extraction fans that suck the hot air out of back of the rack and vent it outside. Cold air is drawn from the house, into the garage and then through the bottom front of the rack. We have tiled and concrete floors so the system is designed to suck as much cold air from near them as possible. The concrete/tiles actId be keen to learn more about your Setup, if you feel like sharing?
Fellow aussie and im intrigued about how you can run no a/c!
Cold inlet temperatures don't exceed 32C during 38C days and the extraction fan speed is varied with an arduino.
Equipment running is 1x HP DL180 G6, 2x P4300 G2, 2x HP DL380 G7 and associated networking gear that runs 24/7 for algorithmic equity trading. UPS will shutdown everything except the 180 and networking equipment if the temperature gets to 40C.
For me, the replacement of equipment due lower life expectancy for operation at higher temperature is cheaper than air conditioning. That said, I haven't had anything other hdd's fail in the past two years.
Did not read all the posts but make sure to seal the floor or you will have dust for years to come.
Getting really close to completion now. Here are a few shots of tape and bedding:
The door:
A couple of painting:
The exhaust for the A/C:
And....the rack installed:
And of course you can still see the Oracle logo:
Just have to finish off some trim and finish out the hot containment. I have a couple of the servers online now just seeing how the A/C does as things heat up.
The door:
A couple of painting:
The exhaust for the A/C:
And....the rack installed:
And of course you can still see the Oracle logo:
Just have to finish off some trim and finish out the hot containment. I have a couple of the servers online now just seeing how the A/C does as things heat up.
Attachments
Sun Rack II 1242
More info here:
Sun Rack II 1242 Documentation Library
I got it on CL for $80. It even came with a pair of awesome managed PDU's. Unfortunately they require three 30AMP outlets each. My breaker panel doesn't have that kind of capacity and I don't want to put in a sub-panel.
More info here:
Sun Rack II 1242 Documentation Library
I got it on CL for $80. It even came with a pair of awesome managed PDU's. Unfortunately they require three 30AMP outlets each. My breaker panel doesn't have that kind of capacity and I don't want to put in a sub-panel.
hey brian, love this project... i've been thinking about building a shed in my backyard to do something similar. i thought about putting it in the garage, but i also use my garage for other things like working on cars, woodworking ,etc.. that create a lot of dust. plus, where i'm at in SoCal it's really dusty here anyway and I wouldn't be able to keep the garage dust free. for the shed, i'm hoping to build a filtered air intake system so keep positive pressure in the shed and pull in filter air to keep it low dust. what are your plans for dust control?
That garage has virtually no dust for whatever reason. But, I have a 16x25 filtered intake vent that I'm going to put in to avoid negative pressure with the A/C running. I just haven't gotten to it yet...I'll take pics. Maybe I can do that tonight...