This is where my server room will eventually be:
This is my plan:
That bottom area is the crawlspace and it's fairly cool so I will grab air from there to cool the server room. If that air does not cut it, I have another crawlspace under my garage that is even colder.
I plan to build some kind of custom cabinet and custom "slide in" cases that are designed so the exhaust air goes into an enclosed cavity and that air is ducted to the return of the furnace, so when the furnace is not running it will still somewhat circulate into the duct system (probably just come out of the real return duct, which is fine). For summer I'm not sure yet, but I will want to simply dispose of the air outside, perhaps through a dryer vent. I'd have to find some low energy use blowers to help move this air around, but since my idea would be to completely enclose the "hot isle" the fans of the PCs would help push the air.
A simpler thing I thought of is just have the servers in regular cases on a basic shelving unit, and have a vent right on the ceiling that just sucks the air in, as most of the hot air will rise so I can take advantage of this. I would insulate the ceiling to try to contain the hot air on top so it gets sucked into this vent. The vent would then hook up to the furnace return.
That brick wall is also an outside wall on the side of the house, so I have the option of adding an AC unit for in the summer, but for winter I rather recycle the heat then use AC.
I will probably extend the stairs a bit so they are less steep, and then the server room wall will go from the end of the stairs to the brick wall. I might make that wall go a bit further out, but not sure yet. The crawlspace area will probably be enclosed and there will be a space at the bottom about 1 foot high so only the coldest air will enter the room.
Anyone have any other ideas? I'm just in planing stage now as I am far from being able to afford this. I only have 3 servers now (and the backup server will be retired soon when my new backup solution is ready) but I want to design this to handle more servers for expansion and what not. Most of this stuff is just hobby and most of it is virtualized.
This can't heat the whole house, that I know, but even if it makes a slight difference when the furnace is not on, it will save on energy instead of wasting that heat. Will also give me a good excuse to add more servers and perhaps run F@H or something on them. I will probably store AV equipment in that room too eventually when I do my rec room. Heck might still put my upstairs HTPC in there once I build it, and just stream everything, but not sure yet. I love the idea of everything being centralized in a soundproof room (will insulate that room like mad when I build it - more research to be done on that aspect)
This is my plan:
That bottom area is the crawlspace and it's fairly cool so I will grab air from there to cool the server room. If that air does not cut it, I have another crawlspace under my garage that is even colder.
I plan to build some kind of custom cabinet and custom "slide in" cases that are designed so the exhaust air goes into an enclosed cavity and that air is ducted to the return of the furnace, so when the furnace is not running it will still somewhat circulate into the duct system (probably just come out of the real return duct, which is fine). For summer I'm not sure yet, but I will want to simply dispose of the air outside, perhaps through a dryer vent. I'd have to find some low energy use blowers to help move this air around, but since my idea would be to completely enclose the "hot isle" the fans of the PCs would help push the air.
A simpler thing I thought of is just have the servers in regular cases on a basic shelving unit, and have a vent right on the ceiling that just sucks the air in, as most of the hot air will rise so I can take advantage of this. I would insulate the ceiling to try to contain the hot air on top so it gets sucked into this vent. The vent would then hook up to the furnace return.
That brick wall is also an outside wall on the side of the house, so I have the option of adding an AC unit for in the summer, but for winter I rather recycle the heat then use AC.
I will probably extend the stairs a bit so they are less steep, and then the server room wall will go from the end of the stairs to the brick wall. I might make that wall go a bit further out, but not sure yet. The crawlspace area will probably be enclosed and there will be a space at the bottom about 1 foot high so only the coldest air will enter the room.
Anyone have any other ideas? I'm just in planing stage now as I am far from being able to afford this. I only have 3 servers now (and the backup server will be retired soon when my new backup solution is ready) but I want to design this to handle more servers for expansion and what not. Most of this stuff is just hobby and most of it is virtualized.
This can't heat the whole house, that I know, but even if it makes a slight difference when the furnace is not on, it will save on energy instead of wasting that heat. Will also give me a good excuse to add more servers and perhaps run F@H or something on them. I will probably store AV equipment in that room too eventually when I do my rec room. Heck might still put my upstairs HTPC in there once I build it, and just stream everything, but not sure yet. I love the idea of everything being centralized in a soundproof room (will insulate that room like mad when I build it - more research to be done on that aspect)