Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Portable Room Air Conditioners: Any Good?

This is topic Portable Room Air Conditioners: Any Good? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-18-2005, 12:00 PM:

I have a small "data center" room (6' x 12') with several network file servers, switches, phone system, and UPSs. The room has a drop ceiling so it's pretty tight.

When the building HVAC system is running normally, the temp in there stays between about 65 and 70 degrees, which is fine. But after-hours, the HVAC system goes into energy-saving mode and the temp in the server room rises to about 85 degrees. The building landlord will not reprogram the HVAC system to keep it on all the time for us, and in fact our lease specifically says they're not responsible for climate control in any kind of a data center.

So I'm looking for a relatively cheap way to take care of this problem. A portable air conditioner, vented through the ceiling, seems to be the best solution. By carefully setting the thermostat on the portable unit I should be able to get it to cut off during the day when the building HVAC is running, and have it come on when the building HVAC goes into cutback mode.

One potential issue is dehumidifying. Some portable units dump the water in a collection bucket that has to be emptied. If the bucket fills up, the unit shuts off until it's emptied. The unit I'm looking at claims it eliminates this problem by having the water fall over the exhaust coils (which are hot), which causes it to evaporate and it's then expelled out through the exhaust. I dunno about that.

Anyone have any experience with these things? Note that I'm not concerned with the heat being expelled through the ceiling -- That's a non-issue.

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 08-18-2005, 12:37 PM:

Our office at my theater has a portable unit that has to have the water dumped out periodically. Works really good if you remember to dump the water in the morning. The office stays cool throughout the day. We dont have it set up on any kind of timer or anything, for it to turn on and off. Not sure how that would work. But if you dont mind dumping the water from time to time, they work pretty good.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 08-18-2005, 05:47 PM:

If there is a sink anywhere near by, you could use a small sump pump, to pump the water to a nearby drain, or even outside. Or maybe have the water flood your landlord's office.