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Server Room Air Conditioning – Backup Systems

Posted on by Climachill

data-center-failWhy is Server Room Air Conditioning Important? A Server Room is quite possibly the most important room within a company, nowadays all of the PCs, telephones, CCTV & access control systems are controlled from this room, it’s such a critical room that failure of a server room can result in the temporary shutdown of a company, an office full of staff whom can’t use their PCs or telephones isn’t a productive office.  Servers & IT equipment don’t like to get hot, as such we are often asked to install Air Conditioning into a Server Room to keep the room at a reasonable temperature whereby IT equipment happily runs at optimum efficiency.

What We Do

We size up the required system and then tell the customer that they need 2x systems so that they have a backup should one of the systems fail, ‘Oh no we don’t have the budget for that’ is what we often hear, ‘Well what are you going to do if the system fails and then your servers start to shut down when the temperature gets too hot in the room?’ we ask, ‘Hmmm good point but there’s no budget so we can only have 1x system’.  We know this is a mistake which the client will one day regret as we so often see the panic and stress associated when an air conditioning system fails within a server room but we can only advise.

So, we were recently called out to a client in Worthing whose Air Conditioning System had failed within their Server Room, temperatures within the room were 32C and rising and the IT manager was getting extremely worried that his servers would start shutting down when the room temperature reached 38C (we did warn you of this 5years ago didn’t we?) it transpires that a sensor within the outdoor unit of the system has failed and we need to order a new one, lead time is 5-7 days as the part is coming from Europe, this customer now has a big problem – a problem which could have so easily not been a problem if they had originally installed a backup system.  We suggest they borrow one of our portable air conditioners but this involves venting an exhaust hose out of a window which can’t be done as it poses a security risk with leaving a window open overnight, we then suggest venting the hose into the room next door but the server room door is alarmed and needs to be shut in order for the alarm to be set during the night, the only option was for the IT manager to shut down all the servers at night time and re-start them the next morning when he could have windows and doors open – a nightmare situation for the IT manager!!

An Air Conditioning System when installed in a Server Room operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, this is on average 3x more use than a system installed within an office would get (normal office hours would be 8 hours a day whereas a server room system is on 24 hours of the day thus 3x more usage), so when your air conditioning system is 5years old it actually had 15yrs of normal use, when you think of it like this you can see why a Server Room system is more likely to fail the longer it’s been in service.  Not only is regular servicing/maintenance an absolute must for these systems to keep them working in tip-top condition but being a mechanical product with moving components one day one of these components could fail.

If you have a server room and you only have 1x air conditioning system in there think about what impact it would have on your company if that system failed – could your company continue to function? Do you need the hassle & the stress? More and more manufacturers are holding spare parts in Europe, when we order its a 5-7day lead time, having a backup Air Conditioning System would save so much stress, hassle, work downtime and grief that it has to be cost-effective to have one, just the peace of mind is a good enough reason, for a free of charge no obligation quotation for a server room Air Conditioning System or to add a backup system give us a call on 01273 803820 or send us an email to sales@climachill.co.uk

Welcome to our new website!

Posted on by Climachill

Climachill LogoClimachill are proud to welcome all our new and existing customers to our brand new website and blog. As a locally based business dedicated to providing first class air conditioning units and portable air conditioning, we understand how important it is to stay up to date in the technological world.

We hope to bring you all the latest news and information about Climachill, including new products, special promotional deals and helpful advice on how to get the best use of your air conditioning unit. We will be updating our blog and website regularly, making sure that you get all the relevant content suited to your needs. Plus you can also see testimonials received from extremely satisfied customers, giving you confidence in our quality level of service.

Our Shop

At Climachill we have taken efforts to making our new website up to date and filled with relevant information while at the same time being easy to navigate, so that you can easily find exactly what you’re looking for with us. For more information on the air conditioning products and services we provide for homes and businesses across the South East of England, please do not hesitate to email us your queries at sales@climachill.co.uk or give us a call on 01273 803820.

Health Concerns and the benefits of air conditioning

Posted on by Climachill

portable air conditioningAir conditioning has, in the past, struggled to shake off a slightly negative image. This was due to energy consumption, but what many people fail to realise is, that times have moved on in the last few years. Old stigmas are hard to shake, but air conditioning designs are actually beneficial for us is many ways, so what are the health benefits of air conditioning?

Not only are they cost effective, they can also heat homes, as well as cool. They don’t use up valuable fossil fuels; they are portable – they can be moved around and come in sleeker styles than ever before. Often seen as a luxury for the super-rich, air conditioning units are nowhere near as expensive to buy as they once were either.

Not only that, but air conditioning is actually good for your health. So, not only is there mobility and economical bonuses involved, but positive health implications too. Not many people think about how air conditioning actually affects the surrounding air, but it’s definitely worth considering as an added benefit.

During intensely hot days in the summer, the weak and vulnerable are usually the first to suffer. Having air conditioning blowing cool air around can dramatically lessen the effects of dehydration or heat exhaustion. Promoting comfortable surroundings is a huge health benefit that air conditioning provides.

The quality of the air is radically improved by having air conditioning. If you have an allergy, then be rest assured that the air conditioned room will reduce the amount of irritant particles in the atmosphere. As well as this, you won’t have to open the windows as often in summer, helping combat pollen intake, as well as noise pollution.

Cleaner air – benefits of air conditioning

Surrounding yourself with cleaner air is positive for your health in lots of ways. It helps fight against build up of mould in your property too. This is another major factor that creates respiratory issues. Mould can leave your health, as well as your property with some very negative side effects. Allowing it to develop and spread in unseen areas is a big gamble. Having air conditioning ventilating your home will help in the protection against mould issues.

Air conditioning solves many problems and not just controlling the temperature of the interior atmosphere. It isn’t widely known enough, just how beneficial to your health it is to have air conditioning installed. With so many great properties for promoting a healthy lifestyle, you should look into investing in air conditioning.

What are the advantages of air conditioning in the work place

Posted on by Climachill

advantages of air conditioning
Air conditioning has been around for more than half a century and has been a frequent saviour to many a household and business. However, it still sometimes gets a negative reputation, based mainly on the amount of electricity used to run them. In recent years, great lengths have gone in to making air conditioning units more economical and less energy hungry. The reality is that air conditioning still uses less power than a central heating system. Therefore, it is still an advantageous choice for many households.

Ultimately, the greatest benefit for having air conditioning is how it brings us comfortable conditions in quick time. This can be due to both the heating and cooling of an area and make a dramatic difference to everyone within the air conditioned room. There are countless examples of how having a comfortable surrounding can help us in our everyday lives.

Benefits of having air conditioning in your office

One of the key benefits air conditioning brings is how it increases the efficiency of people. This is most keenly felt in the workplace, be it a factory, office or shop floor. If a person is too hot or cold, it’s a fact that they cannot work to their maximum potential. They get irritated and have more lapses in concentration. Air conditioning eliminates these elements and in turn makes people work harder for longer. Customers too, feel like they want to spend more time in a retail environment if it’s air conditioned.

Health Benefits of air conditioning in the work place.

It’s not only work rate that improves either. Your health is also given a well needed boost when the air conditioner is on. This is because it pumps filtered air in the room and removes potentially harmful particles that can trigger allergies. Therefore, the cleaner the air, the higher productivity will rise.

Air conditioners also are a great alternative to having windows open in hotter months. This directly reduces the amount of noise created that can leave negative effects on workplaces. With an air conditioning unit running, windows can be closed and therefore everyone can work in a more peaceful environment.

Lastly, air conditioners are extremely versatile machines. They can be operated manually or remotely, they can cool or heat a room. They provide warmth or coolness instantly. They produce little noise and new sleek designs mean that they are no longer office eye sores.  An integral piece of kit in so many environments now, including the everyday home, air conditioners are most definitely here to stay.

Air Conditioner taking longer to heat the office in Winter

Posted on by Climachill

Why is the Air Conditioner taking longer to heat the office in Winter?

cold image

To answer this question you need to understand how an air conditioner works, an air conditioner moves heat from one place to another – as simple as that, this is why they are also referred to as ‘heat pumps’.

When you set the air conditioner to cooling mode, the refrigerant within the system absorbs heat from the indoor air and this is then moved to the outdoor unit where it is expelled to the surrounding outside air (if you feel in front of the outdoor unit you will see the air coming out of it is warm).

When you set the air conditioner to heating mode, the refrigerant within the system absorbs heat from the outdoor air and this is then moved to the indoor unit where it is expelled into the office (if you feel in front of the indoor unit you will see the air coming out of it is warm).

When it’s cold outside there is less ‘heat’ for the refrigerant to absorb which in turn is then transferred inside thus it can take longer for a system to heat an office when it’s cold outside.  Modern systems for the UK market can provide heating to a room down to an outside temperature of -15C but it takes longer to do this.

The use of timers means you can start the Air Conditioner system before people arrive at the office (thus the room can be heated & be comfortable before staff arrive).  When the temperature drops to below 0C we recommend that people keep their systems turned on in heating mode throughout the night but at a lower temperature (say 18C), this means the office temperature doesn’t drop that low which means it won’t take as long to heat up to the preferred temperature set point.

You might think that this is a waste of electricity but there is evidence to show that you actually use more electricity in trying to raise the temperature in an office from say 12C to 22C than by leaving the system to ‘tick over’ at 18C overnight before raising it to 22C.

So, now you know why the Air Conditioner takes longer to heat the office when it gets colder outside!

Why Is My Air Conditioner Not Blowing Cold Air?

Posted on by Climachill

portable air conditioningWhat a problem to have, your air conditioning is not blowing out cold air!

Reason 1 – User Error

If your air Conditioner not blowing cold air, first of all, check that you have set the system to ‘cooling’ mode, this is normally the snowflake symbol on the controller, if it’s on the ‘snowflake’ symbol make sure you have set the temperature lower than the current room temperature (if the room temperature is 23C and you have set the system to 24C it won’t blow cold as the set temperature is higher than the room temperature) – these might sound obvious checks but we do get these sort of phone calls.

Reason 2 – Clogged Filters

If the indoor unit filters are clogged this restricts airflow getting into the unit, if the airflow is restricted then the performance of your system will be seriously affected, if you know how to access the indoor unit filters have a look, if they’re dirty give them a clean, if you haven’t had your system serviced recently then now is the time to book a service, cleaning filters is just one of the tasks our engineers carry out when servicing an air conditioning system.

Reason 3 – Component Failure

If your system is definitely set to ‘cooling mode’ and the set temperature is lower than the current room temperature then the indoor unit should blow out cold air, if it doesn’t then there is a problem with the system.  Most modern systems have a ‘self-diagnosis’ function and the system should enter into a fault mode and a fault code displayed, this is either in the form of an error code (such as E1) or in the form of a blinking led sequence (example – one of the led lights on the unit will flash in a sequence such as 3x blinks then a pause then 3x blinks again).  If this happens try to make a note of the fault code and give us a call with the fault code – this can save time in getting your system repaired, for example, a 2010 LG wall-mounted system may display a fault code of the green led light continuously blinking once, then a long pause before blinking once again, we can look this up and know that there is a problem with the indoor temperature sensor, we know that it is highly likely that the indoor temperature sensor is faulty and your system requires a new sensor, as such we can order the new sensor and then come along on one visit to repair the system thus getting your system repaired as quickly as possible.

Reason 4 – Low on Refrigerant

You might notice that the system is blowing out cold air but that it isn’t as cold as it once might have been, as it’s still blowing out cold air the system might not enter fault diagnosis mode but you are sure the system isn’t working correctly, in this instance the system might be low on refrigerant (the substance contained within the pipework of the system).  In this instance you will need an engineer visit to check the refrigerant levels of the system (we can do this by taking pressure and temperature readings from the system and by also removing the refrigerant from the system whilst weighing it out and then checking the weight of the refrigerant removed with the factory charge weight as indicated on the outdoor unit data plate), if the system is low on refrigerant then there is a small leak somewhere and an engineer would need to find/repair the leak before putting the correct weight of new refrigerant back into the system.

The above tend to be the common reasons as to why an air conditioning system doesn’t operate correctly if in any doubt consult an expert Air Conditioning Company with trained FGas Qualified Engineers, a good engineer will relish the challenge of testing his knowledge  & skills in order to diagnose a fault and get your system fully working again.

Call our service team for any air conditioning issues you may have.
01273 803820

Why Is My Air Conditioner Leaking water?

Posted on by Climachill

air conditioning services sussex

Air Conditioning Indoor units when operated in ‘cooling mode’ create water, this water is collected into an indoor unit drain pan and is then either gravity fed away or pumped away if your indoor unit is leaking water something has gone wrong.

Reason 1 – Bad Installation of Indoor Unit

Is your indoor unit level? If it isn’t then the water could be spilling out of the indoor drain pan before it can be drained away, we have been called out to clients who have leaking indoor units to find the units haven’t been installed correctly by their previous A/c contractor.

Reason 2 – Bad Installation of Gravity Drain Pipe

Does the gravity drain pipe actually have a gravity fall on it? Water won’t flow uphill so if the drain pipe has been installed with an uphill gradient it won’t drain and water will eventually drip out of the indoor unit.

Reason 3 – Blocked Drain Pan / Gravity Drain Pipe

An indoor unit draws air into it from the room, this is through indoor unit filters, filters cant trap 100% of the dust that is in the air & so dust/dirt can find its way into the indoor unit drain pan, if this collects & builds up over time the drain pan or drain pipe can become clogged, if it becomes clogged enough it can restrict water flowing through it enough that water backs up and eventually drips out of the indoor unit.

Reason 4 – Pump Failure

If your system couldn’t have a gravity drain pipe then your contractor would have chosen to install a condensate removal pump, these are specifically designed to pump the water to a suitable outlet, a pump has moving parts thus at some point it can fail, if the pump fails then water will back up and eventually drip out of the indoor unit.  Some pumps have filters which require cleaning every 6months (as per pump manufacturer recommendations), if the filter isn’t cleaned then water won’t flow through the filter to the pump mechanism and so can back up and drip out of the indoor unit.

Is Your Outdoor Unit Leaking Water?

It is normal for an outdoor unit to leak water if the indoor unit has been set to heating mode unless the water leaking from the outdoor unit could cause a slip hazard in the form of turning to the ice during the Winter months then this shouldn’t be a cause for worry.

The above tend to be the common reasons as to why an air conditioning indoor unit leaks water, regular servicing of your system in line with manufacturer recommendations will help prevent water leaking from your Air Conditioner, and during a service visit an engineer will use specific chemicals to clean an indoor unit which helps break down any blockages within the drain pipe, they will also check the pump operation to ensure that it is working correctly at the time of the service.

What Temperature Should I Set My Air Conditioning/Heater To?

Posted on by Climachill

portable air conditioning
There are 2x modes which allow a temperature set point to be made, cooling mode and heating mode.

The answer to this question is that there is no answer – everyone is different and will therefore like a different temperature, from our experience the general norm setting in cooling & heating mode is around 22C.

Setting Air Conditioning Temperature

Setting your Air Conditioner lower than 21C in cooling mode is normally regarded as too cold and is generally a waste of electric in trying to cool the room this cold, likewise trying to heat a room to higher than 24C is generally a waste of electric – most people set their home thermostat to approx 22C so you should set your Air Conditioner to the same temperature.

You shouldn’t set the Air Conditioner to the lowest cooling setting (generally 18C) – this is far too cold for an office environment and likewise you shouldn’t set the temperature to 30C in heating mode, both of these simply waste electric.

Keep Cool in the Office

Temperature set points can cause arguments within an office environment; we have found that men generally like the temperature lower compared to women, we have one customer whom has a mixed office and on a service visit we found that the women had all moved to one end of the office whilst the men had all moved to the other end of the office, the office had 2x air conditioner units and they found this way the men & women each had their own system – a tad extreme but nonetheless solved the office bickering.

In summary we would recommend a temperature set point of approx 22C.

Do I Need Air Conditioning

Posted on by Climachill

portable air conditioning For many decades now, air conditioning has been at the forefront of providing us with a more comfortable interior ‘climate’. This has enabled our homes and businesses to thrive in conditions that would otherwise prove difficult to work in effectively.

If you are wondering whether you need air conditioning, you should first try and gauge the effort you spend making your environment comfortable. Do you often have to open your windows to create more airflow? Do you open doors for the same reason? Do you need to have fans switched on to cool the room? If you do for prolonged amounts of time, then perhaps it would be beneficial to get air conditioning, especially if you have to spend a lot of time in these surroundings.

If you run a business and have employees working for you, then air conditioning can provide the perfect environment to work to their potential. If the air is stiflingly hot, humid or even if it’s freezing cold; air conditioning can come to the rescue.

The beauty of having air conditioning is that it is so easy to manage. Nowadays, the systems can be remotely controlled or even timed to switch on at certain temperatures, meaning that your indoor climate is simple to operate and maintain.

You may think that air conditioning is only suitable for countries along the equator, but this is not the case. As summers seem to be heating up year on year, just a few weeks of intense heat can affect many facets of daily life, from tiredness, to stress, right through to illness such as heat exhaustion. If you own a shop, then customers would definitely spend less time in a muggy, un-air conditioned space, than one that is. Staff members too, will soon begin to feel the heat and pressure and this affects productivity.

Air Conditioning for Heating

air conditioning unit residential

It isn’t as well known, but air conditioning can heat up, just as well as cool down rooms, so it is well worth factoring this into any decision. You may choose to heat your property with the air conditioning, rather than using up the gas central heating. This all purpose functionality is what makes air conditioning a truly great option. Couple this with a dramatic fall in price of air conditioning units, an increase in technological advancements and a whole array of new designs, including portable models and the answer to your problems seems easier than ever.

Air Conditioning In The Workplace

Posted on by Climachill

The Dangers of Excessive Heat in the Workplace

air conditioning In the summer months, when the temperatures soar for a short while, there can be some very real consequences attributed to by excessive heat in the workplace. Over exposure to extended periods of hot weather can increase the risk of a sizeable amount of heat related illness. Workers who are employed in outdoor work are at risk of the elements for prolonged hours, as are those who work in hot environments, such as bakeries, miners and fire-fighters. In general, the younger and  fitter you are, the less at risk you are. This however, does not always apply and it is wrong to think that you can easily dodge the side effects of heat in your workplace.

One such illness is heat stress. This indicates the first signs of danger and can lead on to other more damaging effects, such as heat stroke. The initial signs of stress from heat can cause irritability, sweaty palms and forehead, headaches and dizzy spells. Without proper intervention, this can then lead on to heat rashes or cramps, which usually indicate a growing cause for concern. Once the worker experiences some of these symptoms, it is crucial they let somebody know and attempt to cool down. The worst case scenario for a worker in an overheated climate is to suffer from heat stroke, which is a more aggressive form of heat exhaustion. This can sometimes lead to black outs, and people die every year through not heeding the warning signs of onset heat stroke.

Overheated Office

Preventing the effects of heat in the workplace is an extremely important job of any employer. There are many ways of doing this, such as installing air conditioning, opening windows, introducing fans, letting workers take short breaks, allowing drinks to be consumed and letting the team know about the dangers. Alongside this, there should always be someone within the vicinity who has first aid training and who can assist in any emergencies, should they occur.

Excessive heat can result in the raising of your body temperature to dangerous levels and this can happen very quickly, if nothing is done to stop it. If you or someone else begins to feel chills, suffer from slurred speech or experience dizziness in hot weather, then try to act immediately and seek help. Wearing suitable, light clothes can offer some respite from the heat, but most important of all is to become aware of your own body’s signals when in danger.