In a previous video we built out the server room.
Unfortunately, it gets a little hotter than we’d like it to.
Today, we’re going to fix that.
Now.
There are several ways that we could go about venting the server room.
In fact, what many people would do is just put in something called a ductless mini split
in.
So that's basically just an air conditioning unit that doesn't have any ducts.
It just has one head unit inside and then a compressor on the outside.
In fact, we have that very type of unit in the workshop to keep the workshop cool during
the summer.
The problem with that is that it is very expensive.
So you know you could look to spend somewhere between $4000 and $8000 to have a ductless
mini split put in and I just don't think that we need anything that big.
I would call that active cooling and I don't really think we need any active cooling in
the server room.
As a matter of fact coming out of the back of the servers is roughly about 90 to 95 degrees
at any given time.
So the temperature of the room will rise to 95 degrees pretty easily and it will usually
go over that a little bit 98 to 99 degrees just because of ambient heat stored in the
walls of the room and stuff like that.
So what I think the best solution in our case is, because we already have an air conditioning
system for the entire building that is more than capable of keeping the server room cool.
We just don't want to run it all the time right.
And so the simplest solution for this for our server room is just to get the heat out
of there in the first place through exhausting hot air.
And so what we're going to do is used this guy.
So this is basically a big ass fan.
It's from a company called AC Infinity (and we're not sponsored by them and we've not
talked to them at all.
I paid for this with my own money just to be clear.
Not sponsored.).
So we bought this.
It is basically just a big ass fan and it will go up in the attic, or just above the
raised ceiling.
And it has a little like a temperature controller that sits on the wall and you can set this
to a certain temperature.
And what will happen is anytime the temperature rises above a certain degree it will turn
the fan on and start exhausting it.
And what we'll do is we'll exhaust that into the return vents or the return box on the
air conditioning unit.
And so basically it will just raise the temperature of the entire building just to her but keep
it out of the server room and so then the regular air conditioning system for the entire
building can bring the temperature back down and that way we don't have to have a dedicated
unit for the server room.
But this will work it will work really well.
It's one of those same practices that you'll see used a lot for cooling like a lot of expensive
houses have like a dedicated closet for all of like their amps and stuff for their theater
rooms.
And this is the very similar concept.
So this is what you'll see used in those situations.
Again it's just about removing the heat.
It's not about adding cooling we just want to remove heat.
And so that's what we're going to do and let's get started.
One of the first things that we need to do is install a return air vent.
And the server room, it doesn't have one today and so that's what this guy is.
This is just a regular old return air vent that will drop into the drop ceiling.
So it will just drop in just like a ceiling tile above, but it has a place on it to add
in a filter and we definitely want a filter to filter any air that comes out of the server
room before it goes into the return box in the air conditioning unit.
And so on the back is this thing that looks like a big giant bullseye.
And what that's for is you use… so this is a starting collar for HV AC.
So there's going to be a duct that comes off of this and goes to our motor.
We put this on here and the bullseye tells us where to cut the hole before we attach
this.
And so that's what we'll do!
At first I used a regular box knife to cut out the hole, but that turned out to be a
funny gag and the joke was on me.
The material was much too thick.
So I had to come back a second time with a hacksaw blade that could reach the other side.
The starting collar I chose has an adhesive backed foam pad for air tightness.
This type is generally used on sheet metal boxes where you can then attach it with self-tapping
screws.
In my case, I just used some number 8 machine screws and some fender washers to make it
work.
Then I just sat the assembled box into the drop ceiling in the server room.
At Home Depot I bought this really long section of insulated ducting.
It seems like it just keeps going forever!
Since I was dumb-dumb and didn’t think about opening it in the attic, I had to pull the
whole thing unraveled up the stairs to the attic.
It just kept going and going and going…
Anyway, after a little fishing the ducting arrived at the server room!
OK.
So when you go to Home Depot they are going to want to sell you duck tape when you try
to do an HV AC job on your own.
And this it may be counter intuitive but this is like the absolute worst possible tape you
could ever ever ever use on a duct.
Do not use duck tape on ducts!
What you want to use is a combination of clamps (so this is just a like a worm gear clamp
that you can get in the HV AC section of Home Depot) and then you want to use aluminum tape.
So this is a sticky back aluminum tape.
This is what you want to use to tape up your ducts.
That's what we're going to use today!
Working with insulated ducting is kind of a pain.
It has three main components.
The duct in the center, the insulation, and the outer jacket.
Keeping the insulation out of the way while attaching the inner duct to the return is
a changeling.
A second person would come in quite handy.
Once I got the center duct installed, I pulled the insulation and out er jacket over and
taped it up.
I kinda just rolled the outer jacket under the insulation like tucking in your shirt.
The next thing I needed to do was to cut the old ceiling tile in half so it will fit in
the now square space left in the ceiling.
I used a box cutter and it worked it great.
I installed the filter and the cover, taking care to make sure I had the louvers pointed
in the right direction.
Next I moved to the attic and started mounting the AC Infinity Cloudline.
This project was actually going much easer than I expected it to.
And that’s when disaster always strikes!
OK.
So it is like 200 degrees up there and I was trying to film it and the camera kept turning
over and the sweat was pouring down my face and I actually sweat all over the camera.
And so I just went ahead and did it real fast.
I'm going to show you what I did though and I'll talk you through it just a little bit.
It's like it's like 200 degrees up there in like 3 feet tall.
So it's really hard to work and film at the same time but I'll show you what I did.
So this is the duct that comes from the server room.
So the one we ran earlier.
It goes up here to the ceiling and then that is the AC Infinity Cloudline.
It's an 8 inch duct fan.
It is like 800 or 900 CFM or something like that.
So it's really really fast and pulls a lot of air.
And then that duct goes down here and into the side of the air conditioning unit.
So this is the exact same type of box that's in the return that we put in the server room.
So I attached it exactly the same way to the return side of the air conditioner.
So this will pull air even when the AC Infinity up here is not running.
This will still be a return in that room.
The AC Infinity will just move air whether the air conditioning unit is on or off based
on what its temperature readings are.
OK.
So the AC Infinity has this little control panel that does all kinds of neat things.
It monitors temperature and humidity and all of that and it will turn the unit on or off
and it will off and spin the fan up or slow it down.
All kinds of neat things.
And then it also has this temperature probe and wherever you put this temperature probe
is where the temperature is going to be monitored.
And so what I'm going to do.
I'm going to hang the control panel just kind of on the wall kind of close to the ceiling
up here.
And then I'm going to put the temperature sensor over on the ladder rack so it's closer
to where the exhaust of the server is or for the server rack is.
And so I think that'll be a good spot for it.
So let's go ahead and do that.
I hung the controller on the wall using a couple of screw in drywall anchors and then
ran the cables down from the drop ceiling.
I really with these controllers had the option to run the cables inside the wall and plug
in from the back.
I ran the sensor cable through the ceiling and over to the ladder rack.
So we have our return.
This is where the air gets sucked in by the AC Infinity and sent to the air conditioning's
return.
We have the controller for the AC infinity.
This is where the AC infinity gets instructions based on the temperature of the room.
And then lastly we have a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the room.
OK so it's 76 degrees in the server room right now and we have the setting to come on at
80 so the fan is off.
So I think this is going to work out really well.
This should keep the server room below 80 degrees or right at 80 degrees or less than
at all times.
I think there's probably a couple of questions that some of you are asking.
so I'm going to go ahead and try to answer those now before we go.
So the first one is.
Well you know equipment really should be run you know like a lot of data centers want to
run their their servers at like 70 degrees or some even less.
But a lot of data centers have now backed off of that and said “You know hey we're
not going to.
We're not going to keep data centers that cool.
No real advantage.”
And you know, look I've looked at all the specs for my equipment and it's all designed
to work at like 100 degrees in some cases even 110 degrees (Fahrenheit) and so I just
I don't see that as a problem.
Now it might make the equipment like last longer.
I mean sorry like if I was to cool this down in here to like say 60 degrees I might get
another six months out of this server over its entire lifespan or something.
That is a possibility, but I'm really just not worried about that.
I won't have this gear that long.
You know I'll switch it out I switch everything out every couple of years because that's what
I do.
I'm a geek and I like to always have the latest and greatest stuff.
So I'm not too worried about that.
Another question I know is going to be asked because people ask it to me all the time 'cause
I've done this solution at other places including my like I said earlier the theater room in
my home.
So in the winter the (you can't really see it on camera but there's a duct right here
for the output from the AC and heater) and in the winter we're going to be blowing hot
air in this room.
So now the servers are making it hot and we're blowing hot in here in here.
How is how is this going to solve that problem?
Well couple of ways!
So what it really depends on is what the ambient temperature of the entire building is.
Because remember we're relying on the central heat and AC to heat and cool the building.
All we're trying to do is move this heat out of the room out of this room so it doesn't
build up in here and it is dispersed amongst the entire rest of the building.
So that's what we're trying to do.
So even if it's blowing heat in here it doesn't matter because as long as the ambient temperature
of the building never gets over a certain temperature this room will never get over
a certain temperature.
Now there is a better way to handle that.
There is a valve that I can turn on this this register right here and I can turn it off.
So really in the in the winter months there's no reason to actually add heat to this room
at all because the servers will keep it plenty hot enough right.
So I'll actually probably wind up closing that during the winter months.
Well I think that about wraps it up for this video.
If you guys have any questions that I didn't answer feel free to put them in the comments
below.
I always try when I first publish a video for the first day or two to really follow
along and reply to comments and so if you have anything that you want to drop it in
the comments below.
I'll try to answer it.
And for everybody else, see you in the next video.
Oh! and I apologize for the audio issues in this video.
I had some real problems with my handy recorder and I don't know what's going on with it.
Gotta figure that out.
But I'm well aware of the audio issues.
See in the next video!