DUCK tape vs DUCT tape...

No. Home Depot actually sells it as ducT tape: www.homedepot.com/p/Nashua-Tape-1-89-in-x-120-yd-300-Heavy-Duty-Duct-Tape-in-Silver-2-Pack-1541225/100351967

Is the gap under the door big enough to let in the large volume of air you are sucking OUT with the fan? I've had small equipment rooms with just a small kitchen style extractor fan with no inlet vent actually have negative pressure relative to the outside. The door (outward opening) wouldn't open!!

@@TheGeekPub One of reasons I try to have everything planned out, before I go in. HD and Lowes are like grocery stores. Have a list before you go. (Oh. That new drill will help with these 4 screws for my new towel rack)

My rough semi-calibrated eye-ball suggests the room is about 576 cubic feet. Given a 900+ CFM fan, it will cycle the air in the room almost twice per minute (assuming full speed). It will have to find that air somewhere, since air behaves as a liquid, it will pull air from the AC vent above the server as well from any un-sealed source (proportional to size and distance). Since your heat source is between the cooling and exhaust fan, you should be good to go. I would be tempted to keep the fan speeds low as negative pressure is not good for anything other than finding leaks.

That's hilarious! I should!

nice

Yep! I actually run dual filters just because of this. One large filter in the main unit, and 1" filter at each return.

Good point!

Exactly.

You can just Google a conversion calculator. It isn't that hard.

Clamp over the tape, not under.

That's a fantastic idea.

See the first comment...

Already do that with Observium.

All of my servers have IPMI.

It usually only drops below the freezing point a few days out of the year. In fact, during the warmer part of the day it is not unusual to see people walking around outside in shorts and a t-shirt. Where on that same day in Canada people would be bundled like an eskimo to go outside.

I recommend buying a cheap thermal vision camera, very helpful for debugging this stuff.

This is certainly possible, but if it does, it still accomplishes the goal: dispersing heat throughout the building.

HVAC guy here. 1) Because in the winter the servers will heat the building for "free". Or at least supplement it. 2) TERRIBLE IDEA. Never ever do this. Negative pressure results in many problems. Suspended contaminants, humidity (and therefore mold) issues, and lots of wasted energy. A building must always be positively pressurized.

Interesting! I'll look into this.

Thanks! its only a problem because you have highly binge-able content. love the new studio and the channel!

@@TheGeekPub hey to anyone concerned with the volume being everywhere when watching TV or others streaming what-have-you anywhere your levels could be all over the place they make devices designed to let's just say tame those all over the place levels I will be doing that very thing in my entertainment center and possibly bedroom eventually also in in an apartment trying to find a best way to go wireless audio that would be zerolag without doing something proprietary I see about just using FM transmitter on my main system and just using the FM receiver that would be incorporated into my system at the other end to do an audio link back from that system do the same both ways to different frequencies. Don't worry they would not be going both ways at the same time things will be switched in a way that you would not connect an input to an output obviously you would have feedback issues. It'd be more like a wireless line in line out. Sing is Bluetooth would created delay in the system if I had both sets of speakers on. Any other suggestions? Also protip whenever doing anything with suspended ceilings or acoustical tile of any sort have a bottle of white out with you or in your toolkit. To cover any oopsies or ketchup any of the white that gets damaged if you want it to look better of course to each his own but it does help! Also looking for a larger entertainment center that could use rack-mount as well as standard equipment have all kinds of Cameron space excetera. And also hide all the wall ports in the front room. Preferably would possibly and also easy access back cover don't want to have fully open in the back. But yeah they'll be some active ventilation to the room for sure in the cabinet! Also do it once future-proof things! Always a good idea think 10 years plus down the road at least when you're designing something new a one-off

@@aaronbrandenburg2441 Hi, Not sure your use case here but it sounds like you have quite a few potential kits happening. If you are going for Hi-fi, and you can swing cables, hdmi over cat5 would work great for multi-room setups. Star Tech makes some great TxRx units for that. If you can stomach that AWS probably owns your data anyway, you might just go the smart speaker route with something like alexa. Alternatively, LTT does a great demo of SoundCore by Anker. Personally I just use a Roku streaming stick into a usb powered hdmi audio extractor and then to a pair of $20 Pebble speakers on my night stand. No DSP here. Roku also has a unique audio protocol to wireless pull audio from your cell phone or the roku remote with 0 latency, as well as some great wireless audio options if you use a roku tv or soundbar. Not Hi-Fi though. You are probably looking for more expensive solutions than these though.

@@charlesgi5058 thanks I'll look into this that might help that's why I stuck that in here if they were talking about baby systems and servers and all cooling the setup someone would have an idea on this! I might be able to screen couple of network cables either CAT5 or Cat6. Main reason to go with wireless the due to the fact I live in the apartment I cannot really go through walls or anything. And there is no pass-throughs of any type nor ethernet ports or any type of pre- wire that could be repurposed such as unused ethernet ports location where dirty would be ethernet equipment. So very hard to do much harder than usual with hardwired. Basically would be interconnecting two different rooms with audio video two-way audio and video. I can always use those for cable things like you would use to provide Power in Ethernet to a desk in the middle room or something like that but be really messy. At my previous place I did have hardwired ethernet talk to you in where they did before us previously. Kind of convenient that have notches around the edge of the doorways. And most of all space taken up by furniture! Here not so good an option to go wired! But I will definitely be looking into this so thanks for trying to help it might be what I'm looking for! Although I was thinking possibly about doing Bluetooth transmitters receivers but there would be a delay as I mentioned may not be so bad but could give it a try if could do it inexpensively eat that way versus the other

Honestly I am not sure. It's in the attic and I don't hear it.

These fans aren't loud.

Yeah, when doing ducting work you need the aluminum foil tape.

Mostly because that's the back of the room where all the heat kind of hangs out. And I am interested in keeping the room cool, not the rack. If I put the probe in the rack, the fan would run nonstop.

@@TheGeekPub makes sense, thanks for responding

It's plugged into an an empty attic socket about 24 inches away.

The fabric duct tape was actually invented by an AC company. And some 20 years later a marketing company re-branded it as duck tape: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape

That wouldn't make sense. It's 100 degrees outside. Hotter than the server room!

@@TheGeekPub Yeah for sure, it was 101 F on Tuesday while I was out exercising. It was murder.

Yeah mini-splits are not inexpensive. At least quality one's aren't. I priced one out for my garage and it was going to be about $8000 installed, which included blowing in insulation into the walls. It's still hot as hell out there.

​@@TheGeekPub Thanks for your reply! Probably doesn't make much sense in hot climates, but many places have climates that make it more more usable at least some parts of the year. And cooling off kws of heat is no cheap thing. We don't really above 90F, and outside of warm months, it's 80F and below, and that should be plenty cold enough. Even the humidity shouldn't be bad. (As most houses here don't have ac, and they still have working computers :D ) The question is, what could go wrong, if I wanna cool of a bit more concentrated heat. like a server closet with outside air? Do I need air filters and such, or would it be overkill and it should be enough just to pump in air and make sure not to do it while raining and after that?

@@willierants5880 That's very expensive. You probably counted the insulating the building into the cost which is not strictly the price of the AC. Here you can buy minisplit systems from like $400 (from brands like Midea, Gree, etc), but basically any brand (including Japanese ones like Panasonic, Daikin, Mitsubushi or your more known Samsung, Panasonic, LG, and we even have Carrier which I haven't really seen outside of USA) have offernigs from as low as 700$ (plus installation, but we have cheap labor, and you have your own time to install it yourself ;) ), they have like 3-4kw of cooling capacity which should be plenty for a smaller server room and then some extra, and higher capacity ones aren't that much more expensive. And these not even the lowest end ones, they usually have some reasonable features like inverter drive, and fancy indoor units with filters, wifi, and various things.

Well, for one thing, our homes are much bigger. The workshop area of my shop for example has 50K BTU mini split. That's almost 5X as big as the one you mentioned. Second, we're not already wired for these as most places have central HVAC setups. So we have to spend another $1000 to get a 30 amp circuit put in to run it. It would be much cheaper to replace an existing one than to install from scratch.

Maybe. But if it does, it accomplishes the exact same goal.

@@TheGeekPub I was mostly thinking about that from the perspective of dislodging all the dust that might be in the filters...

@@CoolerQ Yes. That's why I run double filtration. Filters at the returns and filters in the main unit.

@@TheGeekPub Just a friendly warning from a commercial hvac guy, watch double filtering, as it could cause to much static pressure in the duct work/make the fan work to hard to get the air it needs and make the system run less efficiently/shorten the life span. Now that's not an issue with the server room since you added the booster/exhaust fan for that run, but just something to keep in mind if you're double filtering everywhere else as well.

@@jonathonbingle9803 There is a common misconception about restriction and the load on the motor and the restricting flow. The squirrel cage blower is designed to move a column of air, "restriction and if taken out of the unit and set in the open, then it would overload the motor." Restricting the airflow reduces the load on the motor until a point of diminishing returns at which the motor is at the rated speed and moving the optimum amount of air. Further restricting beyond this point will actually reduced air flow but the load on the motor will continue to be the minimum. Once enough air is restricted, being almost completely, then the motor can overheat as it relies on air flowing around the motor to keep it cool. The more vents are open, and the larger and shorter the ducts the more load is on the motor and the less it flows after a point. So what the geek pub is doing is perfectly fine, albeit at a slight cost of possibly a bit of airflow, and even that is debatable. Source: I've been designing data center HVAC for over 30 years.

If I were designing a data center, sure.

@@TheGeekPub fair enough. My own server cabinet is a small 12U box inside a closet that stays cool throughout the year, and positively frigid in the wintertime. I designed the cabinet to draw cool air in from near the floor, in the gap between the roller casters and the box bottom. It draws the air through a pleated MERV 13 filter, ducts it up through the front faces of the rack mount units, then out through the back near the top. I have 3 machines running 24/7 in there now, plus a Cisco network switch. None of them get nonstop heavy usage, and the CPUs seldom dip into the yellow zone, so thus far it seems to be working really well. I did enjoy your video. That fan contraption looks like a real beast.

I can assure you its working just fine. This is a very common practice.

That was my first concern too. At least over here with local hvac regulations, that would be considered bad practice.

@@TheGeekPub It was a good question and you just blew him off.

@@juhohartikainen4408 I'm not blowing anyone off. I simply replied that it works fine. This is standard practice in server closets all over the world. I didn't invent this.

Technically his AC will be more efficient and have a slightly higher capacity as a result of adding the fan. Anytime you increase the mass flow rate of airflow across an evaporator coil you increase both efficiency and capacity of the unit. The only potential problem with his install would be reverse airflow in his return duct when the AC is not running, but his exhaust fan is. Which is not a big deal, unless his main AC filter is upstream of where he tied into his return duct. This could blow dust off his filter back into the space.

There are channel on youtube about HVAC, and there are channels about boring stuff made interesting for special kind of geeks and nerds :)

Not true.

How big is your door gap?

He has a HVAC vent in that room, it will draw in the CFM through that duct, and if any more CFM is needed any cracks anywhere else in the server room.

There is already a 1.5" gap at the bottom of the door. That's equivalent to an 8x5 vent. Second, there is an 8" register in the room from the HVAC unit making for a complete 8" loop.

In the voice of Linus "Speaking of squarespace!"

@@TheGeekPub Fast forward 20 seconds... 🤣

No. That's normal prices.

Perhaps if you're installing a 3 phase 14kw cassette system, which would be extremely excessive. A 3.5kw Fujitsu split would be fine and they're only $1000 + install (which may vary wildly depending on the particulars of its location). Either that or Americans are getting a proper shafting when it comes to pricing.

We're not just talking about the unit's price. You also have to consider the rest of the job. It would cost $900 to $1200 just to get a licensed (who pulls a permit) electrician to run the outside service and disconnect for the compressor.

What are you talking about? Our logo is black on yellow.

@@TheGeekPub The part under Geek Pub

An electrician would charge most of that number just to put in the 30 amp breaker, cable run, and outdoor disconnect, etc. before you ever bought the unit or paid for install, mounts, etc.

@@TheGeekPub If you are in a commercial building that would explain the cost, they always overcharge, electric here in the rural was $200 labor plus $100 parts to run the electric, plus the A/C tech was $800 to install the mini split, I had the mounts, lineset etc in a kit. so closer to $1100 to install. Also depends on line set length and electrical length, but 10k is way too high. Your way works, I am happy for you.

Yes

@@TheGeekPub I really enjoy your brother’s work and I found your video great too. I see why David asks to use your shop sometimes. You’ve got a nice set of tools and equipment. I hope you’re able to get that camera working correctly again too.

Wrong. HVAC company Albert Arno invented duct tape in 1950. It was later that a company called Manco created a competing product called Duck Tape and put a yellow duck logo on it in 1971, 21 years later. Citation: 1) I work in the industry. 2) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape#History

@@robclaggy8620 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape#History This has the WWII history with J&J as manufacturer.. It also talks about what you mentioned.

No, that could result in condensate issues in the attic.

@@TheGeekPub Makes sense. Loving all the videos of the new place.

The real problem with that is pressuring the unconditioned space above the drop ceiling, which now makes his conditioned space negative. This creates a situation of 400-800 CFM 100 deg air being drawn into his conditioned space, not to mention the dust issue that would also create.

@@lackr0073 Thanks for the additional comments. I really like the solution in the video. Wish we would have thought of it for our office server room!

For what?

@@TheGeekPub You will need more Air Intake for the Server..

@@PicaDelphon I doubt that. The existing vent line and return are both twice the size of my powered return. Laws of physics are still the laws of physics and all...

Home Depot Link: www.homedepot.com/p/Nashua-Tape-1-89-in-x-120-yd-300-Heavy-Duty-Duct-Tape-in-Silver-2-Pack-1541225/100351967 They actually call it ducT tape at Home Depot.