Environmental Monitoring and Control (EMC) is crucial to the smooth running of your equipment, clean room, factory facilities, data center and server room. To maximize Equipment reliability you should strive for a stable environment that is free from extreme fluctuations. There are basically 4 key areas of concern. They are: Temperature, Humidity, Wetness and Airflow .

Temperature measurements taken in different parts of the equipment room can vary significantly. Concentrations of equipments can produce so called hot spots. Measuring the temperatures between equipment racks can give you early warnings of possible encroaching problem(s). The optimum range for operator comfort and equipment reliability is normally between 21 to 23 C. Not only are these temperatures comfortable, but they allowed a safe buffer zone in case of air conditioning or cooling failures. To allow you to check for fluctuations and to analyze trends/patterns in the data center, temperature measurements should be carried out over an extended period of time preferably for 24 hours or longer.

Warm air can hold more water than cold air. So if the temperature increases the Relative Humidity (RH) deceases. Conversely if the temperature drops the relative humidity increases, ultimately to the point were condensation happens. High humidity that resulted in condensation and equipment do not really mix. Not only are electrical failures possible, but corrosion may occur over time. Relative humidity levels between 45% and 60% are best for safe server operation. Maintaining relative humidity levels that are too low can cause problems with static. Static does not diminish readily in very dry conditions. Humidity levels below 30% would be considered critical. As the load on equipments like machinery, servers, switches, and routers varies so does the heat output. Maintaining both temperature and humidity within acceptable limits is therefore vitally important.

The third component, Wetness can also affect the total reliability of the equipment room. Water, equipment and electricity are bad companions. The existence of these 3 components at the same time could result in severe havoc especially in equipment room or data center. Flooding, though possible, is unusual, however air conditioning failures are highly possible and under unmonitored conditions, this could end up with massive condensations and water leaks in data center. Wet floors and water dripping on equipment are taboo in data center and should be avoided at all cost. In this case, wetness detectors can be used to alert you to puddles or damp patches on floors.

Calculating the actual Airflow requirements for a equipment room may be complicated & might not accurately address the actual problem. Clearly, your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment needs ample capacity for the amount of heat you expect to generate, but you also need to take into account the possibility of hot spots and the layout of your equipments. Most devices draw cold air in at the front and exhaust hot air at the back, so airflow needs to be sufficient to prevent warmed air being drawn into the next equipment rack. The number of air changes per hour in high density data centers may be several times greater than that required in an office environment. Where an office needs about 2 air changes per hour, data centers may need a much as 25 or 30 changes depending on the heat load of the installed equipments.

Poor control and monitoring of the conditions in your equipment room or data center may shorten the life of these expensive yet delicate equipments, overheating can also cause intermittent faults, and in extreme cases may cause equipments to fail catastrophically. The cost in time, money and lost business productivity can be considerable hefty not to mention the frustration that employees and employers have to endure during period where system unavailability or downtime happens. All these inconveniences could be avoided or minimize if proper monitoring and control probes and devices are there to help you keep tab of what is happening in your equipment room. In fact, careful Environmental Monitoring using strategically placed sensors will give you a clearer picture of the actual conditions in different parts of your equipment room. Coupled with advance and user friendly alerts, such a system should give you ample warnings before conditions become critical or out of control.

In Conclusions:

Stable Environmental Conditions are VITAL to a Reliable Operation of your Data Center/Server Room. Environmental Monitoring and Control (EMC) systems can assist, inform, alert and report to you the actual conditions of your equipment room.