Minus degrees in server room

I se most questions about server room temperaturen is "how much do i need to COOL down the temperature.

But this questions is about how low temperature can servers work in? My servers will be in a room where the temperature can go down to -15 to -20c in the winter and will that require heating of the room or is it fine for servers?

Solution 1:

The recommended temperature range for your servers is not too wide, usually it's wider for humans :) So yes, the -15 degree in Celsius is probably too low, but to be sure, you have to ask the manufacturer or the reseller of your machines.

Once an air-conditioner's heating part went wrong, and for few days nobody noticed it, another few days passed until they fixed the problem, and nothing wrong happen, but if you use your servers regularly in low temperature you will have problems.

Another factor is air humidity. The water condensing on cold parts of the machines, and causes short circuits or other damages.

And almost forgot another important thing: the temperature changing can cause more damage then a constantly low or high level of it. So you have to use some temperature and humidity control, or buy much more expensive servers.

Solution 2:

With hard drives you might have a problem at this temperature, but you will definitely have an issue with condensation.

Solution 3:

For reference, Lenovo SR650 servers should not be operated below 5 degrees Celsius. I suspect similar guide lines are given for other rack servers.

Solution 4:

You are taking it to the extreme, and while it might not cause any real problems, you should follow the manufacturer's guidelines in order to avoid voiding the warranty.

Sometimes the manual does only give a maximum recommended environmental temperature, but e.g. HPE has new Extended Ambient Temperature Guidelines also taking minumum temperatures, recommended humidity and the altitude into account. Likewise, DELL's recommendations for many server models starts from 10°C and also mentions the maximum temperature gradation.