Data center humidity is a pretty controversial topic in the industry.  Managers and operators of data centers disagree on standards for it, as they tend to do with other in-facility climate decisions as well.

Our C.O.O. Don Small says, “Interestingly, data center operators in humid climates believe data centers should be more humid than data center operators in arid climates do.  I’ve spoken with at least a dozen power and cooling experts over the past 15 years, building data centers, and no one agrees on a standard for humidity levels.”

He agrees that ASHRAE has probably the closest thing to a standard of anyone, with certainly the most technical engineering data behind their recommendations.  The issue there is that if a facility falls outside ASHRAE’s recommendation, they can’t say that they comply with standards in this area, which could potentially be unfair to a perfectly well-operated facility.

Another source of controversy surrounding the subject is where the importance of it comes from exactly.  Is it relevant to equipment functionality, or are we more concerned about environmental conscientiousness?  Some combination of both?  The Green Gorilla would like to know.  Yet another side to the issue is whether dew point or relative humidity is the most relevant standard.

Who has thoughts on the matter?  I’m having trouble finding recent data on the subject, and would love to hear from someone who knows what’s up.


Elizabeth English

Photo by tatters:) under flickr creative commons license

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