Well, the last few days here in Alabama have been unbearable!  The temperature has hit at least 100 degrees every day and there is no end in sight for our spell of warm weather.  They say next week it may moderate down to 95 or so, but that’s still hot!

When the weather gets warm we need to pay greater attention to our environment in not only the server room, but also the desktop workspaces and communications closets, pathways and storage areas.  I remember having a switch go out repeatedly every afternoon about 2:00 PM, only to come back online around 8 or 9:00 PM.  Finally we sent someone out to the location.  Well, the switch was up in the unventilated attic and the temperature up there was in excess of 140 degrees!

Things we can do:

1.  Turn off unnecessary services and the equipment running them, if possible.  Even if you can’t shut off the hardware, curtailing processing can take the electrical load of a system, thus causing it to run cooler.

2.  Set display monitors to a 10 minute sleep or power off mode.

3.  Check the temperatures in out-of-the-way locations, like attics, basements, plenum space, etc.  If you have devices in there, you might need to consider moving them.  In any case, those locations may have wire runs in them.  You may wish to monitor the throughput of the wires in hotter weather.

4.  Draw the blinds and curtains and keep outside doors shut.  It’s surprising how these simple steps can reduce radiant heating from the sun and the constant requirement to cool new, hot outside air.  The same applies to the server room door, especially if you have stronger air conditioning there.  Keeping that door open too often can bring warmer air inside.

Good luck, and think WINTER!