The job of a commercial air conditioning contractor in Toronto, ON covers many different tasks. A contractor who handles residential air conditioning has a single, straightforward job: provide cooling for a house that keeps its residents comfortable. Commercial cooling is far more complicated, since comfort isn’t the only goal. It’s best to think of commercial air conditioning as general cooling and climate control rather than comfort, since businesses rely on temperature control for different reasons.
One of the essential jobs of commercial HVAC is server room cooling. Most businesses have a server room or computer room of some type; even small offices need to have a server room to store vital computer and telephone equipment. What is the best way to cool down these rooms? It’s not as basic as having a standard air conditioning system blow cooled air into the server room. We’ll go into why server room cooling is different and requires special consideration from licensed commercial HVAC pros.
Server rooms need higher levels of cooling
The equipment in server rooms generates high levels of heat, and they do so in a cramped space that isn’t anything like the space where people work or normal processes are carried out. The cooling system for these areas must therefore have extremely powerful cooling capacity: i.e. the ability to transport large amounts of heat out of the room. Most computer equipment needs an environment that is around 18°C, which is lower than the comfort requirements for people.
Server rooms have specific humidity needs
Even moderately high levels of relative humidity can be devastating for sensitive electronic equipment. But dry conditions are also harmful, since it increases static electricity that can do extensive damage to the equipment. The acceptable range of relative humidity inside a server room is narrower than for other areas of a business: humidity extremes can mean discomfort for people, but can mean failure for electronic equipment.
Server rooms need special air circulation
Sending cooled air into a room doesn’t mean much if the air cannot circulate to all parts of the room and have enough space to move. The standard office space has sufficient room for air circulation. Server rooms are more cramped, and equipment is stacked close together. Not only must the air circulation in the server room be sufficient to evenly spread the cooling, the equipment must be laid out in a way to allow the movement of air between the racks.
Server room cooling must have specialized monitoring
We install building automation systems to make it easier for a facility to keep all its HVAC components working in tandem at peak efficiency. These automation systems provide alerts in case of problem areas—and this is especially important for server rooms. A server room must be closely monitored in case the cooling system starts to fail to control temperature or humidity. Reacting fast to these problems and calling our technicians for repairs is essential for avoiding data loss.
If you are looking for better server room cooling, get in touch with our technicians today.
Advantage Airtech Commercial Ltd. is the Double “A” Name with the Triple “A” rating. Call us for commercial/industrial HVAC service in the Greater Toronto Area.
