Keeping Data Centers Cool—and Clean
Rely on General Heating & Air Conditioning for server room cooling solutions that address temperature, humidity, and air quality.
A great deal of attention is given to keeping data centers or server rooms cool and dry. After all, cool temperatures and low humidity are essential for preventing overheating and corrosion from causing costly equipment failures. But have you considered whether your current server room cooling system is able to keep your equipment clean as well?
According to the UK-based Data Centre Alliance, contamination in the server room is a serious threat. Contaminants like dust, hair, dead skin, and clothing fibers are prevalent in server rooms. When these contaminants get into server equipment they can clog the heat sinks on computer chips and potentially cause such overheating that the chips and the equipment actually fail.
Attempts to clean up dust and dirt in the server room can sometimes make matters worse. For example, vigorous rubbing or polishing can kick up clouds of microscopic debris that can enter server equipment even more easily than the original dirt. Vacuuming a server room with the wrong equipment can also be a big mistake, as vacuums that are not equipped with HEPA filtration actually release contamination back into the air even while you’re cleaning.
Perhaps the best way to handle dirt in a server room is to keep that dirt from coming into the room in the first place. Having proper filtration on the server room cooling system is an essential part of this preventative approach to server room cleaning.
At General Heating & Air Conditioning, we can not only set up server room cooling systems that have proper filtration, but also help you maintain this filtration with filter cleaning or replacement at annual service visits.
Another important consideration for preventing dirt from building up in a server room is the size of the ducts compared to the rate of air flow. According to the DCA, when too much air is being driven through smaller ducts, there is a greater likelihood of contamination building up.
When you trust General Heating & Air Conditioning to install your server room AC equipment, we will carefully inspect your duct work to ensure it is properly sized, routed for maximum efficiency, and free of holes or gaps that would introduce contaminants into the system.
As the final step in your efforts to ensure cleanliness in your server room, we recommend drafting special cleaning guidelines for your janitorial staff to follow.