Keep it Cool!
As the temperatures in Arizona rises, most offices are turning down the air conditioner to keep the employees happy and functional. However, what about your computer equipment? Is your server in a closet without ventilation? Is your computer in an area where it gets some of that cool air? Excessive heat will affect the devices life span and performance! Here are some tips to help you extend the life of your computers in the Desert environment we call home;
1. Keep your server/switches/routers in a climate-controlled environment. You don’t need a dedicated air conditioner in most cases for this, just a vent from your existing system in the server room or closet should do. If it is a small confined closet make sure it has flow in from the air conditioner and a vent for air to flow out, perhaps in the bottom of the door.
2. Don’t turn off the air on the weekends. If you are using the office air conditioning system to cool your closet make sure you don’t turn it off on the weekends, it will overheat the closet and can cause serious damage to your equipment. The cost of running your system over the weekends may be more costly then you want to spend and in that case, we recommend you look into a small mini-split system for your server room that you do leave running.
3. Put a small desk thermometer in your server closet to monitor temperatures. This way you can see if things are getting too hot from equipment running. Generally, we like server rooms/closets to maintain about 72 degrees but anything under 80 degrees should be sufficient.
4. Have your server cleaned out (dust blown out) and fan checked at least once a year. This will make sure the fans are running at optimal efficiency and removing the hot air from the processor and motherboard
5. Consider having your server Managed. Through Managed Services your IT support company can monitor the heat in the server and have the server send out warnings if it is getting too hot. Then your IT company can look at issues and suggest best practices for your environment.
Taking care of your systems and servers in these manors will extend their life and help to avoid costly downtime. But as always computers and devices will age and should be replaced at regular intervals. Being down from a crash is far more costly than replacing equipment as your IT provider recommends.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Greg Durnan is the Owner/President of AcaciaIT and very active in the business community of Southern Arizona. One of the founding members of the Greater Vail Area Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce. He is very passionate about the needs of businesses in Arizona. He also strives to educate clients on Computer and Network Security through Lunch and Learns, articles, and webinars.
On the weekends he enjoys spending time with his wife and son at their ranch in Vail and working with horses.