# why most datacenters try to keep their server rooms at 72 degrees?



## lockfile (Oct 14, 2012)

I am watching some YouTube videos on data centers. Most of the data center managers say that 72 degrees is the temperature they try to keep the computers at. My laptop is sitting in a room that is 80 degrees. Me too, and I'm very comfortable. It costs so much more energy to keep them that cold. Why don't they just set the servers to operate in room temperature (78 deg.) rather than the 72 that they have?

I have a home server (backup and batch jobs) sitting in a closet and it hadn't caught on fire yet?


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## ondra_knezour (Oct 14, 2012)

Just guess - because higher temperature gradient between server parts and cooling air means better cooling?


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## ChalkBored (Oct 14, 2012)

Because 72 degrees is considered room temperature where the data centers are located.


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## Pushrod (Oct 14, 2012)

It doesn't take much for a data center full of equipment to get hot. The temperature should be chosen such that it doesn't start rising sharply just because a number of the devices in the room have started overheating. Is that temperature equal to 72F? I have no idea.

Think of the engine in a car. It can run at 160-190F for decades. It could run at 210F as well, but if anything out of the ordinary happens (high altitude, hot day, towing, etc), you're in trouble.


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## UNIXgod (Oct 14, 2012)

Heat kills hardware. Look up electromigration


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## wblock@ (Oct 14, 2012)

The Google study found that heat was not a big problem for hard drives, it was vibration that killed them.


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## Pushrod (Oct 14, 2012)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> The Google study found that heat was not a big problem for hard drives, it was vibration that killed them.



I found this out myself.

I once made a chassis to hold some extra disks in an old ATX case. It was only supported at one end and so was very flimsy. I went through about three disks before realizing it was the vibration that was killing them. I then made the chassis more rigid, and it hasn't eaten a disk since (2+ years).


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## lockfile (Oct 15, 2012)

Pushrod said:
			
		

> It doesn't take much for a data center full of equipment to get hot. The temperature should be chosen such that it doesn't start rising sharply just because a number of the devices in the room have started overheating. Is that temperature equal to 72F? I have no idea.
> 
> Think of the engine in a car. It can run at 160-190F for decades. It could run at 210F as well, but if anything out of the ordinary happens (high altitude, hot day, towing, etc), you're in trouble.



So they put it in really cold, so when it goes through the servers it's really hot. I guess that makes sense.


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## mix_room (Oct 16, 2012)

A lot may also be down to the old saying "no one gets fired for buying IBM". Doing what every one else is doing might not be the right thing to do, but it will not get you into trouble. 

Running your data center at 22Â°C is expensive and energy intensive, but if something breaks you know that your customers can not blame this part, as you conformed to industry standards.

Considering that a lot of components are specified to operate in temperatures of 55Â°C, you needn't worry too much.


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## SirDice (Oct 16, 2012)

Funny what you can learn from reading a Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center#Environmental_control.

ASHRAE's "Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments" (PDF)


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## AlexJ (Oct 16, 2012)

lockfile said:
			
		

> I am watching some YouTube videos on data centers. Most of the data center managers say that 72 degrees is the temperature they try to keep the computers at.



I wish it would be true for all datacenters... I knew some datacenters where 90-100 F is a normal condition.

By the way, Google itself  : http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/14/google-raise-your-data-center-temperature/



> â€œMany data centers operate at 70 degrees or below. Weâ€™d recommend looking at going to 80 degrees.â€


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## chatwizrd (Oct 16, 2012)

AlexJ said:
			
		

> I wish it would be true for all datacenters... I knew some datacenters where 90-100 F is a normal condition.
> [/url]



Then they are definitely doing something wrong. They need to invest in more cooling or upgrade their datacenter space. We used to run around 80-90deg F and always had hardware failing.


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## AlexJ (Oct 19, 2012)

chatwizrd said:
			
		

> Then they are definitely doing something wrong.


Yeah, they tried to balance profit and expenses by making economy on electricity bill.


			
				chatwizrd said:
			
		

> They need to invest in more cooling or upgrade their datacenter space.


Managers and politicians think only about their own butt that why they outsource that datacenter to a country where electricity cost is much less for the same amount of bucks and while manager was granted by a "smart" datacenter owner for so a "smart" move, they loose practically all clients base late because of quality of new outsourced support guys


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