54 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
54 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Airflow and Temperature in a Lehmann Acoustic Rack
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taxonomy:
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tag:
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- cooling
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- selfhosted
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- fans
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- server
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date: '2021-04-27 00:00'
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summary:
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size: 200
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---
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# Airflow and Temperature in a Lehmann Acoustic Rack
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I’ve recently bought a Lehmann acoustic rack with silent fans for for my home [^1].
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The main reason being that storing a server under your couch can get a bit annoying over time especially when you have to convert the couch into a bed from time to time.
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In addition I wanted to reduce the noise a bit and the rack seemed like a good option.
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Another benefit which I haven’t thought about before is that I have now all my electronics, besides the client devices, stored in one place.
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## Dust filters for the fans
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The rack sits right next to the balcony door which isn’t ideal when it comes to having a dust free environment for the servers.
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I thought it would be a good idea to get dust filters for the cabinet so that I wouldn’t have to vacuum the servers all the times.
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Therefore I bought magnetic filters by DEMCiflex [^2].
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The first problem, altough a small one, was that they weren’t sticking to the rack on their own.
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This was partially because of the protection grills in front of the fans and partially because the magnets aren’t strong enough.
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Because even after I’ve removed the grills they didn’t stick very well.
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When I applied the included magnet strips they remained attached to the cabinet.
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## Temperature in relation to airflow
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Because it was the first sunny day after I had installed the rack I wanted to check how the temperature was inside of it.
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I applied the top filters without the magnet strips a while ago so I was used to seeing temperatures of around 29 degrees Celcius.
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However when I applied all the fans with the magnet strips I was quickly getting temperatures of around 33 degrees Celsius.
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I first removed the top filters because I reckoned that they would block the warm air from escaping out of the case now that they were properly attached to the case.
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As it turned out that was true, the temperature dropped back to 29 degrees like I was used to.
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Out of curiosity I removed the bottom filter as well after around 30 minutes.
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To my surprise the temperature dropped another 3 degrees to around 26 degrees Celsius.
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![Temperature over time inside the cabinet](../../01.blog/2021-04-27_rack_airflow/2021-04-27_rack_temperature.png)
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I really didn’t expect this to make such a huge difference especially when removing the bottom filter.
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The top ones were kind of obvious and even a bit unnecessary since they blow out anyway.
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Since the environment temperatures peak currently at around 20 degrees Celsius I decided to remove the filters completely.
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When summer arrives with temperatures around 30 degrees it’s not acceptable to add an additional 6 degrees due to bad airflow.
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So in the end I bought expensive dust filters which weren’t useful but I learned how important airflow for temperature can be in a server cabinet.
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Even when the air isn’t fully blocked.
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[^1]: https://www.lehmann-it.eu/en/19-inch-server-cabinets/19-inch-office-racks/19-office-rack-akustik-12-he-600x900x660-silent.html
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[^2]: https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/product/demciflex-demciflex-pc-luefter-zubehoer-280892 |