Where do you store your lab equipment?

[KpuCko]

Hi there,
Here in Bulgaria, in the middle of the street we have metal boxes which hosts ISP telecom active equipment. Yeah they have ventilation holes, but hey - when outside is almost 40C degrees, do they are able to cool down? I'm not sure.. Do you have the same in your countries?

Have you every put your servers in the basement, I'm a bit concerned about the humidity percentage.
Same applies for putting the rack on the terrace.

So as people which host their equipment at home, what is the worst and the best place to store your active equipment?
Please share your thoughts.

Thanks

 

[alaricljs]

Just down the road from me the local telco has a set of big metal boxes about ~15ft (5m) off the ground on utility poles that higher up support the power lines. When it's over 80F (~27C) they're certainly noisier, but they only fail in lightning strikes and car accidents.

My servers are in my basement and the only rust formed has been on icydock screws and the like. All my major brand equipment is happy but I do need to vacuum more frequently because of dust and spiders. The oldest equipment are cases and PSUs and my backup disks, all over 10yrs down there without issue.

 

[piranha32]

It all boils (pun intended) down to operating temperature ranges for which the devices are designed. Commercial devices should operate between 0 and 70C, but devices designed to meet industrial norms must be able to function between -40C and 85C. Of course, this costs money, so if you want a cheap product, it will not be industrial grade equipment. Adding to the cost, there are reliability requirements. Replacing a device installed in a remote location, which failed due to overheating costs a lot of money, and customers are willing to pay premium for a device which can operate for an extended period of time in extreme conditions, to save on maintenance and replacement costs.

Most consumers care only about price, and I'm taking the temperature specs with a big grain of salt.

 

[KpuCko]

My servers are in my basement and the only rust formed has been on icydock screws and the like.

And no issues with the humidity? Wow that's quite nice.

I remember in the past, I worked as a system administrator on a company and they had the intention to build a data center, so I remember all the details about double electricity, different network connections which comes from a different physical side in the building, air conditioning, generators and last but not least the humidity environment.

We had an ventilation system which is created to be used when we perform a maintenance of the air conditioning, which enters fresh air from the outside, but we are advised to not used it because of the humidity requirements.

So I left with the feeling that, much humidity is quite bad for the electric components.

 

[KpuCko]

piranha32, yeah I know that cooling down the devices are crucial for their life, but I left with the feeling that humidity is also important. Maybe it is, but when we speak about extreme conditions ;-)

Anyway, so my concerns about putting the equipment in the garage are groundless.

 

[BlueFox]

Humidity isn't a problem normally. Even non-industrial computers (or servers) are generally rated for 10-90% relative humidity, which covers most of the world.

 

[TRACKER]

I have something like mini data center in my room where i spent most of the time during the day.
I don't use rack mountable equipment due to noise / heat reasons, just few switches and HP Z-class workstations.
The noise is bit of concern but nothing too bothering. The biggest issue is the dust. Due to the high airflow the dust is getting collected inside the machines and i have to clean them up every 2-3 months.

 

[KpuCko]

The noise is bit of concern but nothing too bothering. The biggest issue is the dust. Due to the high airflow the dust is getting collected inside the machines and i have to clean them up every 2-3 months.

In my opinion, this is completely normal. This is a life environment, when there are people, there is a dust. In other hand a DC environment has quite big air filtration capabilities and even that, there is dust of course, but not such a big level. It has to be mentioned that, entering and leaving of people add additional portion of dust.

 

[alaricljs]

When I was in DC ops, the biggest source of "dust" was actually a nasty grime of the rubber from the AC fan belts.

The biggest no in the whole temporary fresh air ventilation is the possibility of condensation. If the metal surfaces are cool enough when you switch over, you get water just like on a fresh cold drink. There's a lower probability of the same at the other end when the AC is turned back on.

 

[piranha32]

piranha32, yeah I know that cooling down the devices are crucial for their life, but I left with the feeling that humidity is also important. Maybe it is, but when we speak about extreme conditions ;-)

Anyway, so my concerns about putting the equipment in the garage are groundless.

As long as it's not condensing, I think you should be good. Since the air is significantly warming up when it enters the equipment, the relative humidity inside the equipment will be lower than outside.