Server Room – Correct Temperature for Data Centers

datacenterphysical-environmentserver-room

When I was working in our server room, I noticed that it was very cold.

I know that the server room has to be cold to offset the heat of the servers, but perhaps it is TOO cold.

What is an appropriate temperature to keep our server room at?

Best Answer

Recommendations on server room temperature vary greatly.

This guide says that:

General recommendations suggest that you should not go below 10°C (50°F) or above 28°C (82°F). Although this seems a wide range these are the extremes and it is far more common to keep the ambient temperature around 20-21°C (68-71°F). For a variety of reasons this can sometimes be a tall order.

This discussion on Slashdot has a variety of answers but most of them within the range quoted above.

Update: As others have commented below Google recommends 26.7°C (80°F) for data centres.

Also the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has recently updated their recommended tempature range to be from 18°C-27°C (64.4°F-80.6°F).

However this article agains highlights that there is still no consensus on the subject. As mentioned in the article I would highlight that:

...nudging the thermostat higher may also leave less time to recover from a cooling failure, and is only appropriate for companies with a strong understanding of the cooling conditions in their facility.

IMO most companies would not have such a strong understanding of cooling conditions and thus it would be safer in a small business environment to be running the rooms a little cooler.

NB: It is important to note there are a lot more factors to consider in a server/data room than just the temperature, air flow & humidity for example are also important concerns.

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