43
votes
Why not put servers in a refrigerator?
A refrigerator is basically a heat pump designed to achieve a temperature close to 0 °C. There are a couple of problems here:
Most refrigerators are way too weak to effectively tackle the heat output ...
- 431
19
votes
Accepted
Why not put servers in a refrigerator?
We do. It's just an up-sized (i.e. more powerful) version of a refrigerator known as an air conditioning unit.
Essentially all server rooms and most spaces where PCs are located (speaking for the U.S.,...
- 306
12
votes
Why not put servers in a refrigerator?
refrigerator boxes tend to generate condensate
There are specifications for acceptable relative humidity (RH) for servers. Air conditioning in server rooms will maintain RH within the allowed limits ...
- 361
11
votes
Why not put servers in a refrigerator?
Here's a webpage from a random guy who put a light bulb in his refrigerator to see what would happen, and took careful data to monitor it. Results:
The next experiment was to put a 60-watt ...
- 211
8
votes
Accepted
Cooling tower for nuclear power plants
The hyperbolic shape of cooling tower is preferred as this shape is stronger against wind pressure. Consequently, the concrete wall thickness can be reduced and optimised. from 1.5m at the base of the ...
- 96
7
votes
Accepted
Radiators in series or parallel?
The efficiency of any radiator (heat exchanger) is a function of the temperature difference between the two fluids in question. All else being equal, a heat exchanger with a greater temperature ...
- 6,874
6
votes
Accepted
Do heat pipes work in any orientation?
Orientation does often matter. As Carl's answer mentions, the liquid can get from the condenser to the hot interface via capillary action, but most common heat pipes are designed assuming gravity ...
- 11.4k
5
votes
Accepted
What are heat sink options for a circulating-water cooling vest?
What you first need to establish is your temperatures. Body temp min and max; ambient min and max. Select the worst case. Then take some guesses as to how much heat you have to pump. Is the vest ...
- 7,914
5
votes
Accepted
How much does an evaporative cooler cool down a room
The capacity of an evaporative cooler depends on the relative humidity. The lowest theoretical temperature that the cooler can reach is the wet bulb temperature.
The wikipedia article has some ...
- 377
5
votes
Why not put servers in a refrigerator?
They've been doing that with computers for 30+ years. Back when computers were the size of refrigerators. They use to get a regular air conditioner. Build a platform for the computer to stand on. ...
- 51
4
votes
Accepted
How do you actually control the cooling level of AC?
The temperature of evaporated refrigerant gas is constant as a property of refrigerant material. And usually it is considerably below the thermostat setting in the controlled space. The design of the ...
- 22.1k
4
votes
Accepted
How small can coolers get?
A Peltier cooler would fit the requirements you set out. They can be compact enough to fit the 'wristwatch sized' requirement and use electrical power to achieve the cooling effect.
You do still ...
- 15.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Should an auxiliary cooling fan blow air or draw it?
The air coming out of the fan will be highly turbulent, wheras the air being sucked into the fan is less so. Hence blowing at the target will increase heat transfer. On the other hand, if you are ...
- 206
4
votes
Why not put servers in a refrigerator?
The price-to-effect ratio for heat pumps is just not there for any large scale applications.
Especially since air or watercooling is far less complex, and therefore a lot, lot cheaper.
Dust is ...
- 140
4
votes
High Fan Speed Not Cooling As Expected (PWM, Arduino)
Most likely the fan is getting into the stall regime and the flow then drops or the exhaust port is causing a pressure drop that the fan cannot overcome after a given speed.
- 15.5k
3
votes
Accepted
Is a metal Prince Rupert's drop possible?
Sort of.
This is rendered a bit of a moot point as most metals already have the the sort of hardness and impact resistance that heat treating imparts on glass anyway so you are essentially ...
- 15.2k
3
votes
Accepted
How to design a cooling chimney for a computer server?
The key technical term you're looking for here is convective cooling. Either you allow the air to rise through the chimney on its own accord (natural convection cooling) or you pump it through with a ...
- 407
3
votes
Should an auxiliary cooling fan blow air or draw it?
There is a big difference in the resulting flow during blowing and suction. Blowing creates a reasonably well directed jet of air, while suction pulls air from all around. Therefore blowing is better ...
- 31
3
votes
Should an auxiliary cooling fan blow air or draw it?
I think it would depend on the enclosure. In an open environment, it would be better to blow cool air at the target. For closed cases, it seems more common to blow hot air out if there are not fans in ...
- 131
3
votes
Accepted
What happens to silicone gaskets (siloxane rubber) in presence of ethylene glycol?
Based on the available data it looks like it will perform well:
efunda.com - (4) Good, both for static and dynamic seals
pspglobal.com - 1 = Recommended
Temperature and additives may change this, ...
- 7,914
3
votes
How to cool down a warehouse?
keep it under 30 degrees Celcius but everyday the temperature will goes above that
No amount of ventilation when it's hot out is going to fix that. In fact, more ventilation will make that worse. ...
- 11.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Cooling with fans in narrow space
No, this will not work well (as I read your plans). You should configure your fans (of any size) to draw air from inside the chassis and expel it outside the chassis. This will require vents on the ...
- 146
3
votes
Use two passive CPU coolers on one single CPU?
Well, I would think that two smaller ones rigged up in an "amateurish" fashion (apologies, but that's we both are, right) are going to be worse than just one (sufficiently large) properly mounted ...
- 241
3
votes
Cooling tower for nuclear power plants
The shape is to take advantage of the Bernoulli law.
The narrower throat of the tower creates reduced pressure encouraging faster convection discharge of warm, moist vapors.
Hot water from the ...
- 22.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Building a cooling system for a kneading machine?
The motors used in inexpensive, occasional-use appliances often do not have cooling fans in them because they are not designed for continuous operation. This means that cutting holes in the top case ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Are there differences between Ice Packs?
There can be differences between ice packs, but in practice the differences seem pretty small, and you'll have a hard time finding hard data on different ice packs' cooling abilities. How much ice/ice ...
- 244
3
votes
Accepted
Do the tubes of an automotive radiator flow in parallel or series?
All (car) radiators are parallel, it is the only way to get the flow rate and reduce the fluid velocity in each tube sufficiently to allow the time for heat transfer.
However, some radiators are ...
- 15.5k
2
votes
Rapid Cooling System for Commerical Freezer
Cooling a little over a cubic meter of air by 75K in 2 minutes requires on the order of 1 kW of average continuous heat transfer. It might be simpler to consider having two reservoirs of air, one hot ...
- 6,874
2
votes
What's more energy efficient: fewer air conditioners working at max capacity or more working at part capacity?
Test it.
Any answer without a test is really just a fancy guess. And a test will answer your question definitively and quantitatively.
Your test needs to be as controlled as possible. Which means ...
- 519
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible