Ideal Computer room temp and humidity?

[taxi]

Is there a general rule of thumb on what the ideal temperature and humidity should be for a computer room?

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Cold and 50% humidity. Truthfully, any climate you're comfortable in the computer will probably be comfortable in too.

 

[reicherb]

Not sure about humidity but we keep ours at 65F.

 

[newuser]

low humidity and low temps

 

[newuser]

btw, why is this in the networking forum? I would think you would probably get better/more responses in the cooling or general forum.

 

[taxi]

I should have made my question more clear.

I am after some factual answer of the question of what temp should you try to keep a Corporate Server room at? Also, what is the most ideal humidity for the room?

Is there such a thing as too cold? So cold that you could cause condensation to form.
Is low or high humidity good? Does low humidity cause more static electricity? Will too high humidity really cause corrosion?

I am just wondering if there is some actual scientific data out there to answer these questions. Also wondering what other people are running in there shop.


I thought this was the most appropriate forum, as larger business networks tend to have server rooms, and there are quite a few people that read this forum that work with larger networks.

Thanks

 

[cmetz]

taxi, rooms I've been in have been set to just a bit cooler than room temperature - 65-70F. The sterotypical freezing machine room doesn't match my experience. The key is maintaining that temperature when you've filled the room with equipment generating lots of heat - that of course requires air conditioning. Colder is uncomfortable for people and means a higher air conditioning bill, and it doesn't buy you much.

I don't have exact numbers, but it turns out that you want the humidity at the end of the day to be solidly below the dew point (hopefully obvious!) but otherwise reasonably high. This helps to prevent static. I would have thought that humidity is bad, but that's what several sites I've worked in do.

I am sure that there's science here.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

In all of the mainframe computer rooms I worked in, they kept the room in the 65 degree range and 50% humidity. As you say, dry is not necessarily good, since static is a significant problem. Rain is bad too!

 

[Garion]

Originally posted by: newuser
btw, why is this in the networking forum? I would think you would probably get better/more responses in the cooling or general forum.

Actually, this is probably the right place to ask. You'll find more corporate IT guys here than other places who know about these kinds of things.

Other posters are right on - Anywhere between 60-65 is fine, and 5-% humidity is good.

- G

 

[newuser]

Originally posted by: Garion

Originally posted by: newuser
btw, why is this in the networking forum? I would think you would probably get better/more responses in the cooling or general forum.

Actually, this is probably the right place to ask. You'll find more corporate IT guys here than other places who know about these kinds of things.

Other posters are right on - Anywhere between 60-65 is fine, and 5-% humidity is good.

- G

Oh, ok cool just trying to help out.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I hope that was 50% and not 5-% humidity!

 

[InlineFive]

Why is this in Networking?

 

[TypeM]

In my server room, I keep it regulated to 65 degrees. The humidity is set to 40% and the racks are all sitting under an air outlet that is 2' 6" above it.

- Mack

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
Why is this in Networking?

There's a network connected to the mainframe.