Who makes glycol-only winter server room cooling? (not a/c)

[scalar]

I am not an HVAC professional but I have read this forum for years for fun. I have the usual conundrum that gets slammed on these forums.

- Server room, needs 24/7 cooling
- Northern freeze-yer bottom location
- Installed the "mostly right" solution, mini-split WITH low-ambient, but which by design cannot handle below -40F

,

The mini-split just lately croaked again, due to high winds and 0 F temps. Guess it don' like wind chill any more than I do.

I don't want to replace it with a Liebert so yes we're "cheap" and will get dissed by half the professionals.

But this is a small rural school constantly struggling with threats of district consolidation or dissolution due to low student enrollment, so please have some sympathy. The technology is almost always $60 off-lease stuff other people are throwing away, and we just bought some "new" file servers for about $65, so we are not rolling in cash here.

,

What I want is fairly simple. It's already freezing cold outside, cold enough to make the mini-split malfunction. We don't need refrigerant and superheat and all that. I just need to bring the cold inside.

A secondary cooling system circulating glycol to an outside coil/fan would do everything we require and could be installed as an add-on to what we already have at a relatively low cost.

So when it gets to about 20-30F outside, a temperature relay shuts down the mini-split and switches to glycol-only cooling until spring, where it then switches back to the mini-split.

,

This sounds simple to me, but the problem is that it appears nobody makes glycol-only cooling as a standalone system. It is usually embedded within something else like a cooling tower system, which we don't need. We already have that mini-split with years of life left.

Heck, I could just mount a car radiator out on the roof and plumb it to a used A/C condenser in the server room, fill the condenser with car antifreeze, and drive it with a circulation pump. (JOKE, people..)

So are there any official commercial glycol-only outside-coil cooling options, to use the cold that's already readily available, or will this have to become a homebrew project that's sure to end up in the Hall of Shame?

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[pecmsg]

- Server room, needs 24/7 cooling
- Northern freeze-yer bottom location
- Installed the "mostly right" solution, mini-split WITH low-ambient, but which by design cannot handle below -40F

No mini split can handle that.

I don't want to replace it with a Liebert so yes we're "cheap" and will get dissed by half the professionals.

No Comment.

But this is a small rural school constantly struggling with threats of district consolidation or dissolution due to low student enrollment, so please have some sympathy. The technology is almost always $60 off-lease stuff other people are throwing away, and we just bought some "new" file servers for about $65, so we are not rolling in cash here.

Remember "You Get What You Pay For"

What I want is fairly simple. It's already freezing cold outside, cold enough to make the mini-split malfunction. We don't need refrigerant and superheat and all that. I just need to bring the cold inside.

Thats your solution. Outside Air

A secondary cooling system circulating glycol to an outside coil/fan would do everything we require and could be installed as an add-on to what we already have at a relatively low cost.

So when it gets to about 20-30F outside, a temperature relay shuts down the mini-split and switches to glycol-only cooling until spring, where it then switches back to the mini-split.


This sounds simple to me, but the problem is that it appears nobody makes glycol-only cooling as a standalone system. It is usually embedded within something else like a cooling tower system, which we don't need. We already have that mini-split with years of life left.



Heck, I could just mount a car radiator out on the roof and plumb it to a used A/C condenser in the server room, fill the condenser with car antifreeze, and drive it with a circulation pump. (JOKE, people..)

So are there any official commercial glycol-only outside-coil cooling options, to use the cold that's already readily available, or will this have to become a homebrew project that's sure to end up in the Hall of Shame?

,

Many manufactures make what you want, your just not willing to pay for the equipment and controls.

[Healey Nut]

You said yes we are cheap ????? Revolutionary new AC system for cool climates , open a window

[cold in alberta]

No mini split can handle that.No Comment.Remember "You Get What You Pay For"Thats your solution. Outside AirMany manufactures make what you want, your just not willing to pay for the equipment and controls.

http://www.mitsubishielectric.ca/duc...r_Options.html
mitsubishi can get to -40

[pecmsg]

http://www.mitsubishielectric.ca/duc...r_Options.html
mitsubishi can get to -40

I stand corrected, they do make a Ultra Low-temp option that is available to -40*f.

Good call cold in alberta

[cmajerus]

thermostatically controlled fan tech, bring in fresh air, shut it down when temp is reached, just put one in a bank this week, A/C couldn't keep up with the added equipment. (Only a solution until spring ) then they need a supplemental mini-split.


Worried about contaminates? Install w/ a filter grill at the outlet.

[scalar]

We have the Mitsubishi Mr. Slim mini-split with low ambient, but operation JUST to -40 F isn't good enough.

Last year there was a period where it was -40 F to -60 F on and off for a couple weeks, and the thing kept shutting down due to out of range operation. "Check P8-00" to which there is no solution, except hit the reset button and hope it runs a while longer.

The tech manual shows that the outside temp gauge goes down to -40F and then reads as a circuit fault so there's not much we can do about it. Should I put a tent over the outside coil with a space heater inside, for those -60 F days?


I am willing to have a contractor install something appropriate for way below normal cooling, but I don't like the usual shot-in-the-dark answers of "just go call Bob's Heating", because I'll probably just end up with a hack who doesn't understand the problem.

[scalar]

A window cannot be opened.

The server room just so happens to be located underground in a windowless space below the front entry doors. My boss calls server room "the bunker" due to the really awkward location.

I'd need to have intake/exhaust ducts running horizontally a good 150 to 200 ft to get out of the hill to outside air. I expect that would end up costing more than a glycol loop system installed on the roof directly above the server room, alongside the Mr. Slim.

I cannot rely on the building-wide air handlers since those are set by maintenance to shut down overnight.

[shortly]

If it's -40 to -60 outside I'm guessing you're heating other parts of the building. If you install the condensing unit of your mini-splt indoors you'll just be moving heat from where you don't want it to a place that needs it.

You may need to install a second mini-split with its condenser outdoors to cool your "bunker" during the non-heating season (if you have one!)

[ammoniadog]

I like your free cooling idea with the glycol pumping through a fan coil on the roof. It sounds simple enough, but I have never heard of anything like it. I'll bet there is such a small market for it that nobody would want to make it.

Shortly has a good idea of moving the condenser unit inside somewhere if possible. Is there a loading dock area or some place like that near by? They also make units with condensers that are water cooled that don't need any part of them outside as long as you have a spot with water and a floor drain or utility sink nearby. They are not legal in all areas though due to their large water usage. You could also use a residential type air handler and evaporator and a walk-in-cooler type condensing unit that is already fitted with low ambient controls. I have seen that done before with good results as long as the refrigeration condenser is sized correctly with a compressor that can handle the higher suction temps.

[ascj]

Those kind of temps and you want to dump to heat outside. Keep it in the building. Reject that heat into the main building. Would need to know more about the main building's havc to make a solution.

[ncboston]

Google 'drycoolers'.

[Carnak]

glycol run around loop "gloop"