Cooling the server area 2.0

Years ago .. almost 10 !!! I did set up a cooling system for the server area, basically a under stairs area in garage.

Is time to try to improve the system.

The 1.0 version

When I did set up the original cooling system honestly I didn't do ANY calculation or planning, I simply took something I had around, put it together and tested.

I have to say that "something" the system was doing, however I can't say to see big differences when the system it was ON.
There were differences but only of few degrees.
I'm sure is better than nothing but is not what I would like to have.

The current cooling system is based on two fans, both connected to an X10 relay module :

Intake fan
It is a fan installed over an insulated box connected with a pipe to an hole to bring in fresh air from the house (the room connected to the server area is the laundry)
The fan is bringing air IN the server area (on X10 is called Server Fan In)
Outtake fan
It is a fan installed on the server room door that push out air in the garage.
The fan is bringing air OUT the server area (on X10 is called Server Fan Out)

There are also a bunch of sensors :

18S20 inside the server area
18S20 in the garage (close to the server area)
18S20 in the laundry room
Temperature/humidity Ambient Weather sensor in the server area
Temperature/humidity Ambient Weather sensor in the garage area
Temperature/humidity Ambient Weather sensor in a room (office)
Temperature/humidity Ambient Weather sensor outside

The first 3 sensors are connected to a USB converter connected to the server.
They were used with the old server via Digitemp

The 2.0 version

This time would it better to do some measurement/calculations and try to improve the cooling.

Here some working areas/ideas :

Better fan system
Peltier cooler (future plan)

Intake fan

Originally I used as intake fan a normal 5 inch computer cooling fan, not much aspiration of fresh air from the laundry.

Then I did buy a similar cooling fan but certified to have at least 90 CFM.
I did some measurements with an anemometer for HVAC and it resulted capable to have an effective CFM measured at the duct opening in the laundry of ~30 CFM.
Maximum power : 4.4 Watt

I decided then to buy something more bigger and designed for bathrooms, an inline fan with about 190 CFM declared.
Temporarily installed still using the original cooling box in polietilene I did measure at the duct opening in the laundry about 90 CFM !
Maximum power : 74 Watt

So far tests with the new fan did show a nice improvement of the temperature/humidity in the server area, much better than before.

Controlling the fans

The fan originally were controlled by the server itself, reading the Dallas 1Wire temperature sensors.
The old server had installed Heyu, thus it was able to directly control the fans via X10 relais modules.

Currently the X10 (handled by Heyu) is done on a separate HA server, thus the main server can't directly control the fans via X10.

Two choices can be followed :

reinstall the HA server in the main server
find a way to send commands to the HA server

Reinstall HA server

It would make sense to reinstall everything on the new server as it was before.

Pro :

remove a server (ok is a Raspberry Pi :) )
reuse almost as is the scripts done for the old server

Cons:

reinstall lot of stuff on the server
reconfigure everything

Alternative control

Alternatively could be interesting to see if there is a way to remotely control X10 loads via sending messages.

One possibility is to use the API made available on the HA-Bridge app (installed on the HA server) used to allow Alexa to control some X10 lights.

HA-Bridge in-fact has a limited RESTful API that should be perfect for the activation/deactivation of the fans.

Let's collect some data :

cubic feet of the server room
power used in the server room

Other things to explore :

how improve monitoring
develop algorithm to control fans
use better fans
use a peltier unit

Translate

Saturday, September 16, 2023