Server Room Cooling in San Jose

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Plenty of San Jose businesses run a server room without calling it one. It might be a converted storage room in a North San Jose office, a network closet behind a Downtown reception desk, or a rack in the back of a clinic in West San Jose. The equipment runs all day and all night, and the cooling often does not. Cool Aid designs, installs, maintains and repairs cooling for these rooms, sized for the real heat load rather than for the people next door.

We have worked on commercial cooling since 1966 from our base at 3511 Thomas Rd in Santa Clara, next to San Jose. For our general approach, see commercial server room cooling services. This page covers what we see most often in San Jose buildings.

The target: inlet temperature, not room temperature

ASHRAE recommends an air temperature of 18 to 27°C (64.4 to 80.6°F) at the inlet of IT equipment (ASHRAE thermal guidelines). That is measured where the equipment draws air in, not at the thermostat on the wall. A room can read comfortable at the door while the top of a rack sits well above the range because hot exhaust air is circling back to the front. The first thing we do on a server room visit is measure at the equipment, then work backward to the cooling.

Why San Jose server rooms overheat

Building HVAC that shuts off at night and on weekends

Many San Jose offices run their rooftop units on an occupancy schedule. That saves energy for the office, but a server room that relies on the same unit loses its cooling every evening and weekend. The fix is usually dedicated cooling for the room, such as a ductless split system or a purpose-built computer room unit, so the servers get cooling whether or not anyone is at a desk.

Summer heat waves

San Jose summers are hot and dry, and heat waves push outdoor condensers to their limits. A small split system that coped in spring can fall behind when the condenser sits in full afternoon sun on a roof or in a courtyard with poor airflow. We check condenser placement and clearance, and size equipment with margin for the hottest days.

Wildfire smoke

In some seasons wildfire smoke settles over the valley. Rooms that depend on outside air or economizer cooling need their filters and dampers checked, since fine particles and clogged filters are both bad for IT equipment and for the cooling coil.

Growth without a cooling review

Racks fill up over time. A room planned for a few servers now holds storage, switches and a UPS, all adding heat. When the load has grown, we recalculate the cooling rather than just raise the fan speed.

Power and restart planning

San Jose businesses get electricity through PG&E's grid, and many buy it through San José Clean Energy, the city's community electricity provider. Either way, the cooling equipment needs to come back on after an outage without someone driving in to reset it. We check that dedicated units restart automatically after power returns, and we talk through whether the cooling should be on the same backup power as the servers, since a UPS that keeps servers running without cooling only buys a short amount of time.

What we install and maintain

• Ductless split systems for small server rooms and IT closets, independent of the building schedule
• Computer room air conditioning units where the load or humidity control calls for precision equipment
• Redundant cooling, so a second unit carries the room if the first fails or is down for service
• Airflow fixes such as blanking panels, hot and cold aisle layout and return placement that keep exhaust air from recirculating
• Monitoring with high-temperature alerts, so someone is notified before equipment throttles or shuts down

Maintenance for these rooms is on a tighter schedule than office comfort cooling, because the equipment runs every hour of the year. Visits cover filters, coils, condensate drains and pumps, refrigerant readings, electrical connections, and a check that alarms and automatic restart still work. Our technicians are EPA Universal certified and trained on the low-GWP refrigerants R-32, R-454B and R-290 found in newer equipment. Every job carries our 1-year parts and labor warranty.

Working with your building HVAC

A server room does not exist on its own. The same rooftop units, ductwork and controls that serve the rest of the office affect how well the room holds temperature, and a new dedicated unit needs a place for its condenser and a path for its refrigerant lines. Because we also service the building side, we can look at both together. Our commercial HVAC in San Jose page covers rooftop units and maintenance programs, and restaurants with a back-office rack can combine visits through restaurant HVAC and refrigeration in San Jose.

If you are comparing providers for building and server room cooling, our list of commercial HVAC companies in San Jose includes firms other than ours. For everything else we do in the city, go back to the San Jose HVAC and refrigeration overview.

Talk to us about server room cooling in San Jose

Frequently asked questions

Written and reviewed by Jim McKinny, owner of Cool Aid Air Conditioning & Refrigeration — California C-20 and C-38 licensed, EPA Universal certified, second generation of a family business serving the Bay Area since 1966. Every job we complete is backed by our 1-year parts & labor warranty.