Still need a sweater at work during the summer? Blame IT
September 4, 2009 by Tom GuayPosted in: Cost Cutting, Green IT, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, News
Ever wonder why you’re forced to pack a sweater to work during the lazy, hazy days of summer?
Two new studies show that the IT guys are the culprit.
Oh, they’ve got a great excuse: “Sorry, but our computers will melt if the server room gets too warm.” Until now, most people just accepted this excuse and soldiered on, in the cold, in the summer.
But no more.
Turns out computer rooms don’t need to be cold enough to chill champagne. Computers can safely operate at a toasty 80.6° F (27° C), according to the American Society of Health, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
As reported in The Register, however, virtually everybody’s wasting money over-cooling their computer rooms. Of 98 companies surveyed by the Data Center Users Group, none let their computer rooms rise above 74°F and most kept the servers in a 70° F environment. Brr! The Register story is here.
Unfortunately, you can’t just turn the AC off in the computer room because some equipment warranties unnecessarily require overly cold room temps. To fix this problem, IT execs will need to negotiate with vendors to convince them that it’s safe to warm up the computer room so the company can cut back on its energy bills.
There’s another reason why IT departments so willing to spend extra money to over cool their precious server rooms. It’s mostly because they’re not paying the electric bill.
A new study by technology consultants CDW reveals companies are wasting millions of dollars by running up power and air conditioning bills. Reason: The study found that IT managers are overly focused on the price of the equipment, not the overall cost of operation, and cheaper equipment comes with much higher operating costs.
But when you also give IT execs the bill for their energy usage, they’re more than twice as likely to then focus on buying equipment that’s more energy efficient, which cuts down on overall operating costs. CDW’s 2009 Energy Efficient IT Report is here.
Tags: CDW, energy efficiency, Green IT
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September 10th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
It would cost our company heavily in productivity if we didn’t cool the office below 74 degrees. In the winter 68 is fine, but I’ve pushed it up to 70 for the summer and still feel overheated half the day. It is always possible for people to add a sweater, but you can only take so much off. A cool office is an effective one.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:31 am
We have a problem in our office, in that one person is always freezing and turns off the AC. The rest of the office swealters because if the AC is off or up to high, the fans don’t run and the air doesn’t move. Our Owners/Sr. Mgmt. doesn’t care, because they are on another system and/or are not here during the heat of the day. Does anyone know what the “norm” is for temperature in an office environment? Most of us are ok at 73*, but the other gal is FREEZING at 75*. Any help would be appreciated.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Dear Hot at Work –
I am the person that always wears a sweater. We have our air at 72*. It is computer controlled, so no matter how you change it during the day, at 5:00 pm it goes to a higher temperature and at 7:00 am it goes back to 72. Not sure if it is a possibility in your work space, but I am in an office that allows me to shut my vent. I used to be out in cubicles where it was necessary for me to always wear a sweater or light jacket. She just needs to suck it up because it sounds like more company time is being wasted on everyone else being uncomfortable than just her. Not sure how old she is, but maybe hot sweats from menopause will soon be on the way
. If not, make sure she has plenty of hot chocolate, tea or coffee around to warm her up!
September 12th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Dear Hot at Work,
The problem with most offices (large open space type) is that either the air system is balanced before cubes, equipment and furniture are installed or cubes, equipment and office furniture are moved around every once in a while or constantly without any re-balancing of the air system. This installation and/or movement of stuff changes the air patterns within the building resulting in one person being cold (usually because, now, a ceiling vent blows directly on them) while others are okay or warm. Add to the mix large windows, perfect or imperfect insulation, dead air pockets, inefficient A/C units and/or boilers or furnaces, the number of people, and the variability of each person’s physiology and psychological tolerance, plus medications they may be using and you can begin to see why this is difficult to solve.
Drinking water (staying hydrated), keeping a sweater on hand, using a battery-operated fan and asking your supervisor or inquiring to Maintenance about possibly fixing the problem all help. Your age doesn’t matter as much as all of these things, but the heavier you are the warmer you likely are. A temp of 74 degrees is or should be comfortable for most, 73 or below is generally too cool and 76 or higher is generally too warm.
One more thing – the temperature should only be controlled by Maintenance otherwise the temps will be on a daily rollercoaster.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Most areas of our facility I keep at 73 and things seem to go fairly well. We came to that number by polling a few departments over a several month time period and this was the average. Our I.S. operations room is kept at 70 though and this is a requirement placed on us by the fine folks at IBM, it seems cool but when a piece of HVAC equipment fails, at least it gives me a little time to react. if we ran it at 80 it may be too late for some equipment if I had to drive to the plant after hours as almost happened one night when our local power company reversed phases on us while doing an emergency repair after an accident. A good fix for those who are mildly uncomfortable… buy a digital thermostat and Velcro it to their cubicle wall. Psychologically they are now in control of the temperature and everyone else stays happy, well worth 20 bucks.
December 17th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I agree that the equipment can run at higher temperatures, BUT… ambient air temperature in the room is not the same as ambient air temperature in equipment racks, nor is it the same as internal equipment temperature. Over cooling the room provides cooler air to begin the air flow through the equipment. Air coming out of the equipment is much warmer. If you start with warmer room air, you end up with much warmer equipment exhaust air indicative of higher internal equipment temperatures. Like many IT related policies, what looks strange, or illogical on the surface makes perfect sense many layers into the situation.
I also have to echo the sentiment that having an originally cool room will give you some safety factor should you loose cooling for any reason. Equipment malfunction due to heat related stress does not seem to follow a linear progression, but rather logarithmic.