Humidity control and dew point management

Abstract

Humidity control in buildings is important for several reasons ranging from ensuring comfort of the occupants to mold control. While the optimum humidity range can be different depending on the function of a particular facility, data centers require especially tight control of humidity and dew point. For example, at low humidity (electro-static discharge) ESD might impose a significant risk to the computing equipment while at high humidity levels hardware failures are more probable due to the growth of conductive filaments or corrosion of circuit boards. In this paper we present a detailed comparison of data centers from several geographical locations, where we have measured humidity and temperature distributions over extended periods of time. The data are analyzed in terms of spatial and temporal dew point variations. We derive detailed dew point "maps" of the respective data center and the impact on reliability and energy efficiency is being discussed. © 2011 by ASME.