What is the idea ambient temperature range for a room in which a rack is located (not the temp for the rack itself) but the temp for the rack room ?

As long as it doesn't affect the equipment, it really doesn't matter. Does the building have a basement with unfinished space? If so, vent the rack to the basement and craw supply air from somewhere cooler.

It doesn’t matter sounds pretty off the wall to me. You must mean something different than I am reading.

I don’t have the precise answer, but when I install simple cooling in a cabinet or closet, the fanS come on at about 90°. Temperatures over that in a room would call for remedial work in the form of larger exhaust fans or full on cooling.

Google says 68-71 degrees is typical for a server room. We have a bunch of proper equipment rooms out there and they are usually set to 72 except in Florida where they are usually set between 65-70.

There is no "one size fits all" temperature. The critical part is the operating temperature of box XYZ in the rack and this will depend on ambient temperature and air flow around each box.

Sometimes it can get strange. I had an EoP network switch that dumped a bit of heat into the space. For wire management reasons I mounted the switch upside down. Inside the switch, natural convection did not work very well in the inverted mounting scheme and the unit's fans went into overdrive -- they were annoying screamers. After some grumbles I remounted the switch, re-routed the cables, and the fans quieted down.

There is a scheme used in large infrastructure projects where the entire rack is filled with liquid Freon, using heat exchangers to pipe waste heat outside the building. In such an installation, air temp near the rack is not a major concern. This approach saves board space because processors and other high heat components are mounted raw -- no heat sink or fans required.

And I included "as long as it doesn't affect the equipment"- what's the problem if the temperature isn't ridiculously high?

All of everybody's comments confirm what I thought when I read the first post:

Why do you ask?

All of those answers are correct and all of them also miss some particular thing that's being asked.

No one reads white papers anymore? Go to trainings or webinars?
There are industry guidelines that have been in place for decades, that were arrived at after doing extensive research.

The one that stands out the most in my memory, is the white paper Middle Atlantic has (don't know where to download it these days, I have it stored on my NAS):
it states *for residential A/V racks or cabinets*, that for every 10°F (5.6°C) above 85°F (29.4°C), equipment lifespan will be cut by 50%. So it is recommended to keep the ambient temperature around equipment, below 85°F (29.4°C).

I haven't seen any updated guidelines from the manufactures or trainings about it from CEDIA in many years. So it could be with modern equipment, those guidelines need to be updated.
Also note (as most already know) a server room is a different animal and has different guidelines. Such as the recommended ambient temperature is much lower for that situation - as Mac's Google search hints to. But thinking about it, all of our racks and cabinets look more like IT racks everyday. So....

Yes, but surely this refers to temperature INSIDE those "residential A/V racks or cabinets," which doesn't directly address the ambient temperature of the room.

Thinking about it, the ambient temperature of the room will have to be lower than the temperatures specified for the "racks or cabinets" if that ambient air is not being pumped in and through the cabinets... at which point that air will rise in temperature. To get this right, the room and racks have to be built, then in-rack temperatures measured, in order to work out how much lower the ambient temperature of the room needs to be.

Well in that case I guess your answer really wasn’t an answer at all. With your knowledge of electronics, you know that temperature is the enemy of anything electronic.

So saying it doesn’t matter unless it affects the equipment, maybe that is sort of an oxymoron, or maybe just a non-statement. I don’t know.

......................

As usual, Brad is front and center with valuable info. Does living in the sticks give him more than 24 hours per day, in order to amass this encyclopedic level of data?

I actually included 'as long as it doesn't affect the equipment. The room and inside of the rack can be separate and I also wrote about supply & exhaust air. That should have told you something but, apparently, it didn't.

If living in the sticks adds time to the day, I suspect it's from not having to deal with constant bullcrap in the city.

Ambient temperature is only part of the consideration. Waste heat must be removed from the area. One must consider the whole situation — equipment, lighting, sunlight, appliances, humans, etc.

In my home office summertime is a challenge as the air conditioner can barely cope and I’ll need to partially shut down equipment on stinking hot days. In the winter months, I barely need heat in that room.

57.

That way you can store your wine in the room as well as the equipment... :-)


Multitasking at it's finest....