I am building a workshop / equipment room (computer workbench, hosting servers and network equipment) in my garage. The room will be fully insulated 8'x 12'. Since I'm running some heat producing computers 24/7, it will become an oven if I don't install some kind of AC unit.
I was considering installing a split system air conditioner, but I don't know what size to buy, or other attributes to consider. Because of the room will be sealed with heat producing computers, it will heat up quickly, but because the room is small, it should cool down quickly as well. I would think this would cause the AC to go on and off every 10 to 15 minutes, which might be hard on it over time.
This will be located in the North Texas area, so it can get pretty humid depending on the time of the year. I will be running an upwards of 4 servers and 3 workstations, and a few network appliances at all times. All-together, this may run up to 2,500 watts.
What type and rating of AC would be best for my workshop / equipment room?
Best Answer
Lots of variable to consider: 1) Climate in your area, 2) insulation level of building, number of servers and their size, 3) occasional use or 24/7 (BTC mining? or?) 4) occupied or not. Google lets their server rooms run as hot a 95 degrees F. https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/03/23/too-hot-for-humans-but-google-servers-keep-humming So while that's way to hot for ppl, it's OK for servers, at least the kind they use. Here is a link to a calculator for heat load. https://www.enviromon.net/advanced-server-btu-calculator/
Depending upon your climate, you might get by with just moving a lot of air from outside to cool the room. Google runs the Belgium server farm with no chillers.