Dessicant Technology Can Combat Summer Humidity Hassles In Facilities

- David Simkins, director of industrial services at Polygon US Corporation (www.polygongroup.us), says:

It’s a dilemma faced by numerous facility managers every year: sweltering heat exists outside, the building is becoming besieged with moisture inside and productivity is suffering.

 Too much humidity can produce a host of problems. For example, processes can be delayed or even stopped completely, machinery and electrical switch stations are liable to failure, and working conditions can become increasingly difficult. High seasonal humidity periods can over-tax an HVAC system, causing slowdowns or shutdowns, and the resulting loss of productivity, costing thousands of dollars. In addition, inventories can suffer moisture gain while in storage, mold can form, freshness or product appeal can suffer, packaging can deteriorate, and equipment can corrode. In addition, condensation causes corrosion of metal surfaces, such as the roof and beams, that can significantly reduce the life of the structure.

First, it’s important to understand why such problems are so prevalent in the warm summer months. As temperatures and humidity levels outside a facility significantly increase, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain relative humidity (RH) inside the building. The reason? Often, the temperature needed to maintain a low moisture level using conventional HVAC equipment exceeds the capacity of the installed systems.

What can one do to ensure business continuity when high temperatures and humidity are wreaking such havoc?

How to Maintain Effective Moisture Control

Desiccant dehumidification technology is the most effective method for maintenance of proper humidity levels in the hot, humid summer months. Using dehumidification on a temporary basis is a smart short-term solution and also gives building managers the practical knowledge to build an efficient, permanent solution.

 While mechanical refrigeration dehumidification can keep humidity at relative levels, it does so at a higher cost of operation and maintenance than other methods, specifically desiccant dehumidification. A mechanical system needs to sub-cool and potentially re-heat to achieve significant dehumidification. This process is very energy-consumptive and limited to the freezing point where the cool coil frosts and becomes a block of ice. Most mechanical dehumidification systems have low ambient control and will not operate below 45º.

 Many facility owners have discovered that desiccant dehumidification can more cost-effectively solve the humidity problems in a building, provide a more comfortable environment for workers and improve product quality by removing unwanted moisture.

 Desiccant dehumidifiers eliminate fog, condensation, and mold and mildew while reducing operating expenses. Desiccants allow facility managers to run fewer compressor hours while reducing condensation in the building, which also has a potential savings in structural repair and painting. The desiccant system maintains superior indoor air quality without sacrificing system performance.

 Another major advantage is the ability to deliver very low dew points necessary due to the high ambient temperatures and moisture experienced during summer. The system achieves lower dew points because the desiccant removes water in the vapor phase and is not limited by temperature. It removes moisture continuously without needing a defrost cycle.

 In the past, refrigeration cooling/re-heating units in a particular facility were not equipped to condition fresh air required under today’s building codes. Now, outside air is requested by current codes, such as BOCA 93, ASHRAE 62-89, that require central treatment of fresh air to meet the intent of the Indoor Air Quality Act.

 Typical HVAC systems use cooling coils to control humidity. That approach has limited capabilities and can cause many problems. Humidity cannot be controlled independently of temperature, so cooling-based dehumidification can result in over-cooled, clammy buildings during spring, summer and fall. This approach cannot maintain the low dew points required to optimize the energy usage of the refrigeration system. Overflowing drain pans and saturated ducts result, promoting biological growth that can lead to health problems.

 For example, in an ice arena, the energy peaks of the refrigeration system generally occur simultaneously with the peak outdoor ambient. This adds to peak demand charges and an increase in operating costs for rink operators. Using a less expensive natural gas desiccant dehumidification system can solve this problem.

To illustrate that point, a recent Concord, Mass., facility study that compared mechanical and desiccant dehumidification in an ice rink operation revealed an immediate improvement in humidity upon desiccant dehumidification installation and implementation. Conditions before activating the desiccant dehumidifier were 43º and 96% RH inside the facility. Six hours after initiating the desiccant dehumidifier, the temperature rose slightly and the humidity lowered to the desired set point of 50% RH. The dryer removed 800 to 1,000 pounds of water from the air. In addition, the rink enjoyed a total monetary savings of $12,000 to $15,000 during summer season by reducing refrigeration run hours for the ice sheet and the mechanical heating and cooling systems.

Steps to Consider

 No matter the type of dehumidification system used to maintain relative humidity in a facility, attention to other important can help maintain good moisture control during the summer months, and keep maintenance and operation costs from skyrocketing with the change of seasons.

Facility operators should conduct regularly scheduled maintenance. Regular surveillance of all HVAC and dehumidification equipment is crucial. The units need to be balanced and operating at 100 percent efficiency at all times. Don’t ignore the worn belts, high amp draw motors and warm bearings because those will be the weak points of the system when the heat and humidity return.

 Keep the facility well-sealed. Ensure doors leading to the outside do not remain open. Tight weather stripping is important, as well as making sure there are no holes on the exterior of the building. Revolving doors instead of standard “open and shut” doors help reduce humidity levels. If building walls are constructed of cinder block, cover the porous surface with a coat of vapor-retardant paint to reduce the internal humidity load and keep the facility comfortable.

 Reduce light. Light shining through walls and around windows and doors can cause moisture problems. If this is the case, seal in the area and minimize the source.

Reduce outdoor air. Outdoor air is required to meet IAQ standards, but it needs to be controlled. The best way to meet the standards and maintain control is through the use of a make-up air system coupled with a desiccant dehumidifier. An air quality sensor (CO or CO2) also is highly recommended. Monitoring the air in the facility is the most effective means of reducing operating cost while providing a quick response to the ever changing environment.

 Abundant opportunities remain for use of temporary dehumidification technology in manufacturing, processing, and many other industries. Personnel would do well to consider its use whenever weather variations affect workers, production rates or product quality, when corrosion or condensation cause problems, or whenever product must be dried at low temperatures.

Increasing Uptime with Improved Environmental Monitoring

- Mo Sheikh, spokesperson for ITWatchDogs (www.itwatchdogs.com), says:

Workers and customers, empowered by smartphones and widely available Wi-Fi services, want and are demanding 24x7 access to email, company network resources, and Web sites. And thanks to today’s global marketplace, even small companies must support round-the-clock activities.

Unfortunately, IT system downtime remains a problem for companies of all sizes. A 2010 eWEEK article1 reporting on an industry study noted that North American businesses suffer an average of 10 hours of IT downtime annually. The article went on to note that this downtime costs small companies about $55,000 in revenue each year, while large companies lose about $1 million per year.

To avoid the problems that can cause downtime, companies need to closely observe server room environmental conditions and be alerted when problems arise. This is an area where ITWatchDogs environmental monitoring solutions can help.

Examining the Causes of Downtime

Several data center environmental factors can contribute to or increase downtime and service disruptions.

Heat can be a killer. Extreme heat buildup can fry a server, knocking it offline and perhaps damaging it permanently. Even moderate heat buildup can have an impact. Equipment failure rate doubles for every increase of 18 degrees Fahrenheit, according to studies done by the high performance computing researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Increased failure rate due to prolonged heating has also been noted by the Uptime Institute and others.

When it comes to monitoring temperature, it is not good enough simply to nail a thermostat to the wall. Since the temperature can vary drastically around different pieces of equipment, you should consider placing separate temperature probes within indi-vidual racks or critical devices. That way, problems with a broken fan or an air-conditioning failure will show up quickly. Similarly, you might be able to identify a server that is overheating due to it running excessive workload.

To take nuances into account, ITWatchDogs environmental monitors are designed for today’s crowded server rooms. They are small, ranging in size from only 4 inches long up to the largest models that are rack mountable at 19in/1U. The devices can run off of existing electrical power outlets, and many support Power over Ethernet (POE).

The monitors have built-in Web servers and use standard networking protocols, including TCP/IP and HTTP. This allows server-room administrators and their technical staff to monitor temperatures over an Ethernet network or remotely via the Web from anywhere. The information is presented in a manner that allows quick inspection of current temperatures, as well as historical data to help spot heating pattern trends. Finally, all of their environmental monitors are capable of sending alerts via SNMP traps, email, and SMS messages. Some devices can also trigger an external phone dialer to provide voice call alerts up to nine phone numbers, when pre-defined thresholds are exceeded.

Other server-room environments can cause downtime problems, and need comparable monitoring and alerting capabilities.

Humidity is another major threat. The reason: Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air, and too much water vapor can form condensation on electronic components, leading to electrical shorts. If the humidity is too low, there is an increased chance of damage from electrostatic discharge. In either case, uncontrolled humidity can severely damage critical server components, causing the server to crash and shutting down access to applications and data.

Unfortunately, humidity is one of the trickiest environmental characteristics of a server room to measure and, as such, requires very close attention.

To measure humidity, most companies have focused on relative humidity. In fact, for years the guidelines followed were based on recommendations of the Ameri¬can Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). The group suggested that the relative humidity for computer rooms be within the 40 percent to 55 percent range. However, because relative humidity varies with temperature, ASHRAE now recommends that data centers measure absolute humidity, expressed as the dew point (it should fall within 41.9 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit).

As was the case with temperature measurements, humidity can vary significantly within a data center. So sensors must be placed throughout the room and server racks.

Water in a server room is never good news. Whether the source is a leaking or burst pipe, or a flood, water can easily shut down an entire organization. Examples include:

• A water main break in Texas took down the computer systems in the Dallas County Records Building. According to The Dallas Morning News,2 this “[crippled] operations for almost the entire county government.”
• Rains flooded a T-Mobile data center in the Pacific Northwest, taking down servers supporting the company’s service activation portals and web sites.

Water is usually measured using a cable that is run under an equipment room’s raised floor. When water comes in contact with the cable, an alarm is triggered.

Pro-active water monitoring should make use of sensors capable of detecting the presence of water over a large area so remedial action can be taken before it shorts out equipment.
A less frequent cause of downtime is fire and smoke. In 2008, a fire destroyed 75 servers, routers and switches in a Green Bay data center, according to Data Center Knowledge.4 Smaller fires and smoke from equipment or frayed wires can trigger fire-suppression systems which, while much better today at safeguarding equipment, can still cause damage to IT equipment.

To detect fire and smoke requires more than traditional building smoke alarms. The problem is that when they sense smoke there may be no one around to hear it. What’s needed is an alarm that connects to web-enabled environmental monitors. In this way, the smoke alarm works as it normally does, but its alert can now be sent via a SNMP trap, e-mail, SMS, and/or voice call to multiple IT staff members.

ITWatchDogs environmental monitors come equipped with various on-board sensors along with digital and analog inputs for external sensors, including tempera¬ture, humidity, water, smoke, and fire to name a few. The environmental monitors provide a way to remotely monitor server room conditions, view historical data to spot trends, and receive alerts when conditions exceed pre-defined thresholds. The information provided by ITWatchDogs environmental monitors can help a server room staff:

• Notice changing conditions and take preemptive action to prevent downtime
• Spot troublesome fluctuations and anomalies that might contribute to downtime
• Receive alerts when conditions warrant immediate attention.

Furthermore, ITWatchDogs climate monitors can be configured to display video feeds from up to four IP network cameras. The interface provides a quick view of remote conditions along with environmental measurements when logged in. For a manager working remotely or at home over the weekend, secure access to the interface is perfect to see who’s in the server room and check what’s going on from time to time. Upon alarm, a quick glance can also help determine if a trip to the facility is required or not.

And finally, when it comes to server room downtime, the elephant in the room is power outages. Power outages are the leading cause of downtime. Certainly, short outages can be covered with properly configured UPS systems. However, in some cases, a UPS might further contribute to equipment failure if it leaves servers running while the A/C remains off.

Naturally, if the power outage is longer-term for instance, a severe winter storm tears down power lines – knowledge of the extent of the power failure is essential so that backup plans can be initiated.

For power monitoring, ITWatchDogs offers the Remote Power Manger X2 (RPM X2). This adds remote power monitoring and switching capabilities to any ITWatchDogs environment monitors supporting a digital sensor port. The add-on accessory presents real time logging and graphing of voltage, amperage, real power, apparent power, power factor and kilowatt-hour to provide trend analysis and power metrics for future planning. The device enables users to set alarm thresholds for these measurements and it can remotely reboot locked systems or control system power via the secure user interface.

Your Technology Partner

To increase IT system availability, organizations need to take a proactive approach to monitoring the environmental conditions that contribute to downtime and disruptions.

Certainly, for years IT equipment such as servers, switches, and storage devices have had temperature and fan sensors, as well as software to send alerts when temperatures rise or a fan fails. But in many cases, these systems only notify you once a problem is severe. Additionally, these monitors only give you information about an individual device.

Proactively monitoring conditions in the entire server room or data center helps identify issues before they turn into a problem. This allows time to rectify matters before equipment deteriorates or fails.

ITWatchDogs offers a wide range of environmental monitors providing cost effective ways for server-room managers and their staffs to proactively monitor their IT infrastructure and maintain system uptime. The products provide a quick and easy way to keep an eye on remote conditions from a secure web interface and receive alert notifications when specified alarm thresholds are exceeded. The interface displays live video feeds and environmen-tal measurements including temperature, humidity, air flow, light, sound, power, water detection, and more. The measurements are logged and graphed for viewing trend patterns. External processes or applications can be automated on an alarm trigger or remotely through the web interface with units supporting output-relay control or with the Remote Power Manager X2.4

ITWatchDogs’ climate monitors use standard Web server software to display their measurements and camera feeds. All management and monitoring tools are accessible securely via Ethernet or the Internet; no software installation is required. The monitors have SNMP agent software to integrate with popular networking management tools, and they support SNMP v1, v2c, and v3.

Most importantly, the ITWatchDogs line of products provide the pro-active monitoring needed to maintain high availability in today’s data centers and equipment rooms.

* ITWatchDogs is a regular contributor on Data Center POST

1 “IT Outages Cause Businesses $26.5 Billion in Lost Revenue Each Year, Survey,” eWEEK, December 10, 2010 http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/IT-Outages-Cause-Businesses-265-Billion-in-Lost-Revenue-Each-Year-Survey-280492/

2 “Water main break cripples Dallas County computers, operations,” The Dallas Morning News, June 2, 2010 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-countyflood_02met.ART0.State.Edition2.295d6ee.html

3 “T-Mobile Down Due to Flooding?” BRG.com, December 4, 2007 http://www.bgr.com/2007/12/04/t-mobile-down-due-to-flooding/

4 “Fire Destroys Wisconsin Data Center,” Data Center Knowledge, March 31, 2008 http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/03/31/fire-destroys-wisconsin-data-center/3 

How to Protect Your Data Center from Environmental Threats

- Mo Sheikh, spokesperson for ITWatchDogs (www.itwatchdogs.com), says:

Introduction: Physical Dangers Just as Important as Cyber-Threats


Viruses, spyware, and network threats get most of the attention, but environmental factors like heat, humidity, airflow, smoke, and electricity can be equally devastating to server room equipment, and thus to a company’s IT operations.

To get a sense of the danger, let’s take overheating as an example. Servers generate high levels of heat, and the facility must be kept cool to ensure optimal performance. The warmer it gets, the more likely equipment will overheat and malfunction. In fact, an increase from 68°F (20°C) to 86°F (30°C) can reduce the long-term reliability of electronic equipment by as much as 50 percent. And when air conditioning fails, temperature can skyrocket in a matter of minutes. In February 2009, Duke University Professor of Physics Robert G. Brown explained that heat weakens electronic components like power supplies, motherboards, and memory chips, so even if they don’t fail immediately, they become more susceptible to failure over time.

“The one time our server room overheated drastically, reaching 85° to 95°F (30-35°C) for an extended period of time…we had node crashes galore, and a string (literally) of hardware failures over the next three months— some immediate and obviously due to immediate overheating, some a week later, two weeks later, four weeks later,” Brown writes.

In this post, we’ll discuss the danger that environmental threats post to server room equipment, outline a comprehensive environmental monitoring strategy, and explain how environmental monitoring products from ITWatchDogs deliver an end-to-end solution for prevention and early detection of environmental issues.

No company is immune

Depending on the size of a company and its industry, downtime can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour. For example, if your Web site is down and visitors choose a competitor, you’ve lost both the immediate transaction and the opportunity for their repeat business. If the outage causes your company to break a service-level agreement with a customer, the associated fees and potential lost business add up quickly.

Every server room and data center—even those of household-name companies and sites—is vulnerable to environmental damage. In March 2010, Wikipedia suffered a two-hour outage when one of its server clusters—located in a European data center—overheated. The company was able to reroute traffic to a North American data center, but a glitch in its DNS server tools caused Wikipedia address resolutions to fail globally. Think about how many users were frustrated by this outage. According to 2008 statistics, Wikipedia receives between 25,000 and 60,000 page requests per second. Multiplied by 2 hours, that’s at least 180 million failed requests due to overheated servers.

Lost business aside, you must also consider the cost of replacing expensive servers. In September of 2007, an overheating condition at St James Hospital in Leeds destroyed 1 million pounds’ worth of server equipment. The negative publicity surrounding the incident also impacted the facility’s credibility and public image.

Can your operation afford a large-scale server failure?

What’s clear is that companies of every size must protect their IT investments from environmental threats like overheating, power outages, and excessive moisture—all of which may result from flooding, condensation, leaks, or malfunctioning/poorly-configured air-conditioners.
Smoke conditions can also lead to serious equipment damage, in case alarms are triggered during off hours and personnel aren’t available to remediate or respond quickly. If a smoke alarm triggers an ‘emergency power off’ (EPO) device, for example, cooling systems could go offline and leave servers susceptible to overheating.

Environmental Monitoring Is the Key

In a typical server room, a wall-mounted thermostat measures room temperature and controls the air conditioning. Individual servers now come with built-in temperature sensors that issue alerts if the level of heat surrounding the individual unit rises above a certain threshold, or if an internal fan breaks down. Isn’t that enough to ensure safe operating temperatures?

The short answer is, no. Data center temperatures vary widely from one zone to another. Even if the overall room temperature is 68°F (20°C), the area near the output vents may be 5 degrees cooler, and the area behind server nodes may be 5-10 degrees warmer. Airflow problems could create higher-temperature pockets of still air in some aisles, creating hot spots that can damage sensitive components.

A better approach involves temperature/humidity/airflow sensors installed on or near individual racks and critical devices. Logging and graphing these measurements over time can help administrators spot trends, such as temperature spikes during peak operating hours or fluctuations when the building’s HVAC systems are throttled back on weekends.
With comprehensive monitoring in place, if an internal fan breaks or an air conditioning unit fails, the spike in operating temperature will be noticed quickly. Probes with internal microprocessors are easy to configure and highly reliable. Similar sensors can track humidity and moisture in the air and the floor, and measure the temperature and rate of air flowing along different paths in the server aisles.

Even sound sensors can help in the early detection and remediation of component failures. For example, a fan that is wearing out may get louder over time, which could be spotted at an early stage on a device that graphs relative measurements. A properly calibrated sensor would send out alerts for either condition and help IT staff resolve the issue rapidly.

The benefit of microprocessor-based sensors is that they can be monitored via Web browser, without requiring proprietary software installations. With a Web-enabled monitoring system, you can measure temperature, humidity, airflow, water leaks, power, door/cabinet position and more, setting alert thresholds and escalation schemes in case an anomaly is detected.

Optimal sensor equipment can send alerts in numerous formats, including SNMP

Best Practices for Optimal Monitoring

Heat: An optimal environmental monitoring strategy includes multiple temperature sensors. These should be placed on top, middle, and bottom of individual racks to measure the heat being generated by equipment, and at the air conditioning system’s intake and discharge vents, to measure efficiency. Probes should also be placed around critical devices, because the temperature inside a rack-mounted device could be as much as 20 degrees higher than the surrounding area. A probe near the room’s thermostat can help monitor what the thermostat is ‘seeing’ as it controls the air conditioner.

You can also use a hand-held thermometer to determine where the hottest spots are in the server room, and then set up sensors in those areas to get an ‘early warning’ when temperatures rise.

Once these sensors are in place and being monitored centrally from a browser, emergency alert policies should be set up to ensure that the right personnel are informed of potential problems. Remediation procedures should also be mapped out ahead of time. Service contracts with an air-conditioning repair company ensure rapid response, and you should make sure the company offers 24-hour service.

The logs that track temperature over time are also helpful, in that IT managers can review them over a weekly or monthly span and analyze them for spikes that occur during off hours. In addition, testing the sensors every month is an important step to making sure the system will function properly when an event does occur.

Water: Moisture and humidity sensors should monitor for leaks inside cooling equipment, potential leaks that come from nearby pipes, or water caused by a flood or disaster. Water sensors should be placed at the lowest point (wherever water would tend to puddle) on the floor, and underneath any pipe junctions. Air-conditioning condensation trays should also be equipped with sensors to detect overflow.

Power: Electrical failures can cause air-conditioning equipment to shut down even while an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) ensures that servers stay up and running – a sure recipe for overheating a server room in short order. The best approach is to monitor current coming into the data center, and arrange for an orderly shutdown of IT equipment in case power is knocked out. The hour or two of downtime is far preferable to the widespread device failures that would result from an overheating condition.

Smoke: Smoke alarms can trigger power shutdowns. Also, they’re usually not tied to an alerting system that contacts IT personnel. Alarms may be noticed by facilities managers—or the local fire department—but the maintenance of sensitive server equipment is not their top priority. Here, the best approach is to wire the smoke alarms directly into the climate monitoring and alerting system, essentially extending the functionality of the climate sensors to the smoke alarm.

Doors: A final concern for data center monitoring is unauthorized entry. Dry-contact sensors that detect the opening and closing of a door should be installed at the room entry points and on the doors of server and UPS cabinets. On a busy day, these sensors can send alerts numerous times and present a time-consuming irritation, but managers can configure alerts to account for weekday vs. weekend operations, work hours vs. overnights, and other factors to help reduce the number of alerts sent and pinpoint unusual activities.

IP cameras are another fairly easy component to add to a monitoring solution. They provide real-time surveillance of sensitive areas in the data center and tie into the Web-based console, so administrators can get a first-hand look at the environment wherever they may be.

What to Look For in an Environmental Monitoring Solution

A solid environmental protection solution should include sensors that are easily deployed throughout the data center, connected to a monitor with a built-in Web server for easy access and communication. It should also deliver:

• Secure, browser-based access
• Comprehensive logs and graphical analyses of environmental factors over time
• Multiple account levels, to ensure that IT staffers or clients see only what they’re authorized to see
• Multi-level alarm policies with escalation, so admins can set alert thresholds and contact lists for prompt response
• Multiple notification media, including e-mail, SMS text message, SNMP alerts, and telephone auto-dialer

Requirements aside, the solution should not charge subscription fees for tech support and software updates. A long-term data center management and monitoring solution is critical to preserving your IT investment, but it should not generate recurring expenses that degrade ROI.

The ITWatchDogs Solution

The ITWatchDogs family of monitoring devices provides remote monitoring of environmental parameters in data centers and server rooms. They track temperature, humidity, leaks, power supplies, door position and more. ITWatchDogs’ wide variety of models and options fit different requirements and room sizes, but all are based on standard hardware and software and monitored via a Web browser.

The environmental units are designed to take up very little space; the largest models are 1U high rack-mount units, the smallest is only 4 inches long by 1.5 inches wide and deep. Models with built-in Power over Ethernet (POE) capability are available.

All the products have a wide range of on-board sensors; most models allow 16 or more remote sensors to be connected as well.

All ITWatchDogs’ climate monitors have a built-in Web server that automatically generates sensor data logs and graphs, without any need for external software. All management and monitoring tools are accessible securely via Ethernet or the Internet. The monitors have SNMP agent software to integrate with popular networking management tools, and they support SNMP v1, v2c, and v3. Some models include low-voltage relay outputs that can be used to activate a strobe light, an alarm, a backup air conditioning unit, or an auto-dialer. ITWatchDogs offers highly reliable auto-dialer devices for both GSM and analog phone systems, with their own independent backup-power batteries which allow them to make phone calls to your IT and service personnel even in the event of a power failure.

Lastly, ITWatchDogs stands behind its products, with firmware updates available free on its Web site and technical support available free for life. Support is provided by the same engineers that designed and engineered the devices themselves, so questions and problems are resolved quickly and authoritatively.

Conclusion

Data center equipment is very sensitive and susceptible to environmental damage from excessive heat, moisture, and unauthorized access. Power outages that knock out cooling systems can lead to overheated servers in a matter of minutes.

Simple thermostats and server-based temperature sensors aren’t enough to ensure comprehensive protection. IT organizations need temperature and water sensors throughout the data center and at specific strategic locations near potential trouble spots. They also need door sensors and IP cameras to alert administrators in case of unauthorized entry and provide real-time views of the space. They also need comprehensive management tools to tie the data from these sensors together into a cohesive display, and to set alarm parameters in case a threshold is exceeded.

ITWatchDogs provides a full line of environmental sensors that deliver exceptional protection and alerting functions without requiring any proprietary software installations or update subscriptions. Regardless of your data center’s size or complexity, ITWatchDogs has a cost-effective monitor and sensor solution that will reduce risk and enable smoother IT operations for your company.

To learn more about ITWatchDogs and its line of monitors and sensors, visit www.itwatchdogs.com

* ITWatchDogs is a regular contributor on Data Center POST

Data Center Humidity: Should Range Between 45% to 65% rH

- Maarten Van Laere, CEO at ServersCheck (www.serverscheck.com), says:

Relative Humidity in server rooms should range between 45% to 65% rH. Why? When below 45% rH, the humidity level in a room is too low. When humidity is low then static electricity starts building up. The lower the more. Just touching equipment can go as far as blowing up the system by provoking and electrostatic discharge (ESD). Above 65% rH water in the air starts to deposit and will cause corrosion. As humidity is in the air, it also enters into the system. Corrosion is something building up slowly and can cause permanent damage to the hardware.

While relative humidity monitoring is something people know about water is a different story. Water is something very few people monitor. Water damage is a dangerous one as most computer rooms have raised floors. As such it is not clearly visible when water infiltrates the room. Where can the water come from except from natural disasters? Most often it comes from leaking AC units. One would be surprised to find water pipes running through computer rooms. Last but not least rooms above the computer room can have a water leak and as water goes to the lowest point, it can infiltrate through openings into the computer room.

On our website we have a server room planner that allows one to draw his own server room and get an idea of the sensors he might need for his server room. Educating the market of the risks is a challenging task and I am glad that your publication wants to bring it to the public’s attention.

Humidity in the Data Center: Increases Risks

- Bob Douglass, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sensaphone (www.sensaphone.com), says:

Should data center managers be concerned about humidity?

Yes! Both high and low humidity levels will increase the risk of server crashing, lock-ups, and even permanent damage — all of which cause downtime and cost money.

The good news for IT and data center managers is that they should be able to easily screen humidity levels with the same monitoring systems that they use to alert them of changes in temperature and other potentially harmful conditions. In many instances, it is just a matter of including an additional sensor dedicated to measuring the room’s relative humidity.

When tens of thousands of dollars are at stake, it makes sense to monitor every potential threat. We’ve received feedback from many customers that their monitoring system paid for itself after detecting a problem that prevented a single instance of downtime.

Humidity in the Data Center: As Detrimental as Cooling

- Richard Grundy, director of engineering at AVTECH Software (www.avtech.com), says:

Is humidity just as detrimental on data center equipment as cooling?

Humidity is often not considered a priority when implementing an IT & Facilities Environment Monitoring solution. However, it can have a major impact on the long term reliability of equipment in the data center or computer room. ASHRAE recommends that the humidity in a data center environment be maintained between 40%-55% relative humidity. When relative humidity levels are too high, water condensation can occur which results in hardware corrosion and early system and component failure. If the relative humidity is too low, computer equipment becomes susceptible to electrostatic discharge (ESD) which can cause damage to sensitive components.

Humidity in the Data Center: Should You be Concerned?

- Harry Schechter, founder of Temperature@lert (www.temperaturealert.com), says:

Should IT and data center managers be as concerned about humidity as some experts think?

If you’re sticking with the traditional cool temperatures in your datacenter, it’s not much of a worry any more. However, if you decide to outfit your staff with Bermuda shorts, it’s time to start watching humidity.

Humidity can also change dramatically if you have a large increase in the number of people in a smaller room. In addition to generating heat, a person expels moisture with each breath – think back to sitting in a parked car in high school. j/k. If you’re experiencing a particularly large number of staff members working in a smaller sized datacenter, this could affect the humidity level. Of course, a properly designed large scale center probably won’t need to ever worry about this.

Data Center Temperature: ASHRAE's Perspective

- Don Beaty, president of DLB Associates (www.dlbassociates.com) and first chair of ASHRAE TC 9.9 (www.tc99.ashraetcs.org), says:

In an effort to provide greater flexibility, particularly with the goal of reduced energy consumption in data centers, ASHRAE TC 9.9 made an effort in 2008 which resulted in an update to the Equipment Environmental Specifications. The 2004 specifications were bounded between 20 to 25°C (68 to 77°F) and 40 to 55% RH. ASHRAE worked closely with IT manufacturers to expand this region. This included decreasing the dry bulb lower limit to 18°C (64.4°F), and increasing the upper limit to 27°C (80.6°F). The moisture limits were lowered to a 5.5°C (41.9°F) dew point and increased to 60% RH & 15°C (59°F) dew point.

The reasons for the expansion in each direction are different, but the underlying goal was to include a larger operating range with more opportunities for energy savings.

**It should be noted that all conditions are to be measured at the IT equipment inlet.

DRY BULB LOWER LIMIT
There is no concern from an IT standpoint in lowering the operating condition from 20 to 18°C (64.4°F). The goal here was to extend the control range of economized systems by not requiring a mixing of hot return air to maintain the previous limit.

DRY BULB UPPER LIMIT
The justification for increasing the dry bulb limit was to increase hours of economizer use per year. Concerns about increasing inlet temperature causing lower reliability are not well founded. IT Equipment manufacturers test, confirm, and state, through ASHRAE, that operation within the recommended limits will not affect equipment reliability.

MOISTURE LOWER LIMIT
Lowering the moisture limit allows for a greater number of hours per year where humidification is not required. Significant research was done to understand the impact of lower moisture levels as they relate to electrostatic discharge (ESD). It was determined that risks of ESD are impacted by absolute humidity (dew point temperature) and not relative humidity. Additionally, since most heat transfer through computer equipment is sensible (constant dew point), having a limit of relative humidity greatly complicates control and operation of the cooling systems and could require added humidification with a cost of increased energy.

A lower limit of 5.5°C (41.9°F) was chosen which corresponded to the lowest absolute moisture level of the 2004 recommended limits.

MOISTURE UPPER LIMIT
Based on extensive reliability testing of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) laminate materials, it has been shown that Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF) growth is strongly related to relative humidity. It was found that extended periods above 60% can result in failures. As a result, a relative humidity upper limit of 60% was chosen. Additionally, an upper absolute moisture or dew point temperature limit of 15°C (59°F) was chosen to provide an adequate guard band between the recommended and allowable envelopes.

It should be noted that there is an allowable operating range with expanded boundaries compared to the recommended range in which equipment is expected to function for short to moderate periods of time. This is a statement of functionality. This buffer region allows for an expanded envelope where equipment will still function when the recommended limits are exceeded (e.g., equipment failure, extreme outdoor air environmental conditions during economizer use, etc.).

The frequency and duration equipment operates in the allowable environmental conditions must be studied and is an engineering / business decision. The associated risks must be fully understood before decisions are made.

How much of a concern is humidity? Humidity can be a concern if it is outside the recommended range, but equipment will operate reliably within this range. Equipment will still continue to function in the allowable range, but cannot be guaranteed for extended periods of time.

The allowable range provides a buffer zone where equipment will continue to function. Often, these excursions are brief and will not negatively impact equipment operation. Full risk analysis should be conducted to understand what is tolerable in a given installation.

Overheating should NOT be a concern unless equipment is frequently operated outside the recommended region or for long durations.

Does raising the temperature as a way to lower costs increase costs in other areas? This will vary on a case by case basis. Operating within the recommended range does NOT guarantee the data center is operating at optimum energy efficiency. Depending on the cooling system design and the outdoor environmental conditions, there will be varying degrees of efficiency within the recommended zone.

As an example, as the temperature increases, thermal algorithms on IT equipment may increase the speed of air moving devices integral to the equipment. This represents a situation where energy savings by increasing the temperature can increase energy usage. Full analysis will be needed to determine the optimal operating conditions.

Another example would be operating within the upper areas of the envelope which results in latent cooling (condensation) on refrigerated coils. Latent cooling decreases the available sensible cooling capacity for the cooling system and may cause the need to humidify the air to replace moisture removed.

In a case where purchasing new equipment would allow for more efficient operation, a Total Cost of Ownership of various scenarios can be used to calculate payback periods. The determination of an acceptable payback period is then a business decision.

It is generally good practice to monitor temperature and absolute humidity at the server inlet as described in Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments, 2nd Edition. Sensors that ensure the inlet temperature to equipment is within the recommended region should be included in initial cost estimates and should not be considered an added cost. Raising the temperature does not imply the need for new sensors.

Conclusion: It is important to understand that there is no prescriptive operating point for all data centers in all environments. The recommended conditions are intended to provide a reliable operating range for equipment. The point within this range that a given data center operates most efficiently will vary.

The allowable temperature range provides a buffer zone that allows a wider operating range during excursion events such as failures, equipment maintenance, or extreme outdoor environmental conditions. Design should consider business risk and Total Cost of Ownership analysis to understand both where to operate in the recommended range and what excursions into the allowable range are acceptable and for how long.

Proper air management techniques improve the efficiency of air delivery and prevent wasted energy from short-circuiting, recirculation, and bypass air. Any mixture of return and supply air will increase the temperature of the air entering the IT equipment compared to the supply air.