Portable aircon

**oj88** · April 10th, 2019 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Vodka

why car a/c? afaik your typical car a/c compressor is a lot more powerful than a typical window-type a/c. why not just rig up a small 0.6HP window type?

or do watercooling for the processors

a. The cabinet is nowhere near a window. It's in an 'island' between my living room and dining area

b. Watercooling is likely to be ineffective as the ambient temp in the IT cabinet can reach close to 37°C. Two of my servers are only rated at 35°C max. ambient temp, and as mentioned previously, the one on top gets the brunt of it. Also, beyond the CPU, I can't watercool everything... RAM, chipsets, hard drives, etc.

This is the ambient temp reading for the last 36 hours in the area where the server in question is located. Notice that even during the wee hours of the morning, the temp barely goes below 34°C. It only goes down whenever the living room A/C is running.

This is the actual picture of the setup, taken a few minutes ago.

**Vodka** · April 10th, 2019 02:00 PM

how about putting your entire servers into a chest freezer

then run it at a fairly warm settings, dunno if that's possible though...

but i'm really interested on how to crank a car a/c compressor. but for different reasons

**oj88** · April 10th, 2019 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by Vodka

how about putting your entire servers into a chest freezer

then run it at a fairly warm settings, dunno if that's possible though...

but i'm really interested on how to crank a car a/c compressor. but for different reasons

It's more like taking the chest freezer to my IT cabinet.... but you get the idea.

At this point, I think building an A/C using water dispenser/cooler parts will probably be more viable. If it can lower the ambient temp by so much as 5 degrees, I'll be happy.

**Yatta** · April 10th, 2019 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by oj88

It's more like taking the chest freezer to my IT cabinet.... but you get the idea.

At this point, I think building an A/C using water dispenser/cooler parts will probably be more viable. If it can lower the ambient temp by so much as 5 degrees, I'll be happy.

How about enclosing the servers in a closed cabinet and then make some piping/ducting work from another/remote AC unit?

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**Vodka** · April 10th, 2019 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by oj88

It's more like taking the chest freezer to my IT cabinet.... but you get the idea.

At this point, I think building an A/C using water dispenser/cooler parts will probably be more viable. If it can lower the ambient temp by so much as 5 degrees, I'll be happy.

you got high ambient temps in the cabinet coz the CPUs/GPUs heat everything inside. so if you could watercool them then mount the radiators far away you'd drop the ambient temps inside the cabinet. you simply have to run 2 thin hoses. very neat. low power consumption too. i got lots of experience w/ watercooling from my overclocking days...

**Lew_Alcindor** · April 10th, 2019 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by oj88

What a timely thread. I was actually looking at online ads for a portable A/C. But I have a different use case.

With summer here, I'd like to cool my IT "cupboard"-type cabinet at home. It's around 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.2 meters (W x H x D) or just roughly 3 m³ in volume.

All equipment (3x servers, switch, monitor, AP, and other ancillary components) consumes around 250W, ±20%. That roughly translates to around 850 BTU/hr of generated heat. In fact, just within the month, one of the servers which is installed quite near to the ceiling crashed showing an amber health LED indicating that it has preemptively shutdown due to overheating. Moving the server is not an option so I will have to cool down the whole space during the summer.

I am looking into designing a small A/C out of automotive A/C components. Does anyone (or do you know somebody) who has ever succeeded in fabricating such?

If I were you, I will try the simplest solution first - that is try to suck air out of that box. moving air has a cooling effect. install an exhaust fan to suck out hot air.

**oj88** · April 10th, 2019 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by Yatta

How about enclosing the servers in a closed cabinet and then make some piping/ducting work from another/remote AC unit?

As a matter of fact, this is the direction I'm considering. The cabinet already has a 4-inch PVC pipe going to the attic. A custom/fabricated mini "split-type" A/C will be ideal. Control is through a thermostat and/or home automation.

Originally Posted by Vodka

you got high ambient temps in the cabinet coz the CPUs/GPUs heat everything inside. so if you could watercool them then mount the radiators far away you'd drop the ambient temps inside the cabinet. you simply have to run 2 thin hoses. very neat. low power consumption too. i got lots of experience w/ watercooling from my overclocking days...

As it is, with the room A/C off (a 2.5HP inverter split) the living room and dining room are just a few degrees cooler than my IT cabinet. I'm looking at having the cabinet actively cooled with the heat expelled through a condenser installed in the attic. That way, I don't inadvertently warm up my home and tax the existing room A/C.

I have three (3) servers now with the possibility to add more in the future. Is there a liquid cooling solution that can pool all servers' plumbing into one big radiator? I don't want three or more sets of hoses going in and out along with three radiators outside.

Originally Posted by Lew_Alcindor

If I were you, I will try the simplest solution first - that is try to suck air out of that box. moving air has a cooling effect. install an exhaust fan to suck out hot air.

This is plan B. If it can be helped, I would like to dump the hot air outside the house (or to the attic). But not through ventilation. Doing so will create negative pressure inside the house and reduce the effectiveness of my existing room A/C.