Server room cooling in Dartford
Is the comms cupboard the hottest room in your Dartford building? We install dedicated cooling for server rooms, racks and comms cupboards, sized from the power your equipment really draws, with its own controller, and running through the weekend when the office system has been switched off.
Price a server room unit
Three details and we call you back with the next step.
- Calculated from the equipment's real draw
- On its own controller, not the office thermostat
- Working at 3am on a Sunday
What temperature should a server room be?
Server Room Environments gives 18°C to 27°C as the recommended range for computer rooms, ideally 18°C to 25°C, with UPS batteries held between 20°C and 25°C and relative humidity around 45% to 50%. Your equipment manufacturers may specify tighter limits. A cupboard that spends a Dartford summer at 30°C is quietly shortening the life of every component inside it. Source: Server Room Environments.
How do you work out the cooling a rack needs?
From its electricity bill, in effect. Nearly every watt a server draws leaves it as heat, so a 900W server is a 900W heater. Total the servers, switches, storage and UPS, multiply by 1.5 for growth, and add the lights, the people who go in and any sun through a window. One kilowatt of cooling equals 3,412 BTU an hour. If you bring the power readings to the survey we do the arithmetic with you. Source: Server Room Environments.
Can't the office air conditioning handle it?
Not reliably, because it works office hours. It goes off at night and at the weekend, and it obeys a thermostat in the open-plan area rather than the cupboard with its door shut. The servers never clock off. A separate unit with its own controller means the rack stops depending on whoever last adjusted the office setting.
What if the cooling itself stops?
Decide now, not during the outage. The least you want is a temperature alarm that texts or emails someone. Where downtime costs real money, the next step is a second unit on standby, set to cut in when the first fails. A two-person company with one switch and a NAS has a different exposure from a firm with build servers and client data, and the design follows what an hour of downtime would cost you.
Does a server room unit count towards the 12kW inspection threshold?
It may. The TM44 guidance treats all the units under one person's control in a building as a single system, and says cooling for server rooms, storage and unoccupied spaces can be inspected as well. If your combined output is anywhere near 12kW, count the server unit in before assuming you are below the line. What the rules mean for a Dartford business is set out on our air conditioning in Dartford page. Source: GOV.UK.
Questions people ask
Our server room is in the middle of the building. Is that a problem?
Not usually. A longer pipe run through the ceiling void reaches an outdoor unit on the roof or at the back; the route and the condensate drain are what decide it.
Do we need to power down for the installation?
Normally no. We work around your equipment rather than on it, and anything carrying risk is agreed with your IT people beforehand.
Is one rack worth a dedicated unit?
Send the power draw and the room size and we will tell you. A busy rack in a closed cupboard often needs it; a lightly loaded one in a ventilated room may not.
Sources we checked
Worth knowing before you ring
With these we can usually tell you on the first call whether the job is simple.
- The postcode
- Whether it is a house, a flat or business premises, and roughly its age
- If you rent or lease, who owns the external wall
- Which room, how big, and the direction its window faces
- Any management company, conservation area or listing that applies
Server room cooling outside Dartford
Looking for server room cooling in one of the towns around us? Each page below sets out that place's own housing and planning position, and our air conditioning in Dartford page gives the full picture.
Worth reading first
What size of air conditioner does a room need?
Kilowatts and BTU by room size, with the adjustments that matter.
How to check an air conditioning installer on the F-gas register
The company certificate, the engineer's category and where to look them up.
What does air conditioning cost to fit and to run?
Where the money goes: the unit, the labour, the wiring, the electricity, and the extras a flat or a new estate brings.
Jobs that often go with this one
Office air conditioning
Offices from a room above a shop to a floor on a business park, with the heat rules and the landlord dealt with.
Commercial air conditioning
Retail and hospitality premises, sized with the door open and the bedroom over the shop remembered.
The rest of what we do
Air conditioning installation
The whole job from the first measurement to the handover of the remote, with every consent checked on the way.
Home air conditioning
The back bedroom, the new flat with the glass wall, the loft nobody can sleep in: cooled in summer, warmed in winter.
Air-to-air heat pumps
The same wall unit, run the other way: a room heated for pence an hour, with the summer cooling thrown in.
Multi-split air conditioning
Several rooms, one box in the garden. The design that fits inside a semi's single permitted outdoor unit.
Conservatory air conditioning
For the glass room that is a greenhouse in July and a fridge in January, and the garden office beside it.
Air conditioning servicing
An annual visit for any system by any installer, with the legal leak check where the charge demands one.
Air conditioning repairs
Warm air, a puddle under the indoor unit, ice on the pipes or a blinking code: the cause found before anything is ordered.
Want us to ring you?
A name, a number and a postcode is enough. Say which room if you can. Or ring 01322 952910.