I had mentioned in an earlier thread we're looking at going to a 4-day work week over the summer so that air conditioning in our buildings could be shut off Thursday, Friday, and Saturday each week.
Since our server rooms (aside from our NOC) aren't on separate A/C systems, this would mean completely shutting the servers down every Thursday and bringing them back up on Monday. We'd also need to do the same with all of the switches in our wiring closets. Upper management has seen the problems this could create, and it looks as though instead we'll be leaving the A/C on, but at a higher temperature. Our Dell servers are rated to run at up to 95 degrees with 80% humidity. I don't want to hit those levels, though, and am pushing for us to let temps get no higher than 85 degrees. My question is, could even this lead to problems down the road? I understand that it's within the operating range of the servers. However, it's still on the high side. It will result in higher-than-usual temperatures for the servers, and their fans will run at higher speeds (which, ironically, will consume more electricity and partially offset the money we're trying to save). The fans are mechanical devices, so running at higher speeds would have to reduce their lifespans somewhat, I would think. Any other considerations? Effects on other components of the servers? John Hornbuckle MIS Department Taylor County School District 318 North Clark Street Perry, FL 32347 www.taylor.k12.fl.us ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
