Server Room Humidity Too Low

Conversely too little humidity contributes to electrostatic discharge.

Server room humidity too low. Too dry will result in the build up of static electricity on the systems. Normally airborne moisture vapor works to dissipate static electricity preventing buildups that would otherwise lead to esd. Too much humidity will cause condensation leading to hardware corrosion and equipment failure. Too humid and corrosion will start slowly damaging your equipment resulting in permanent equipment failures.

When monitoring the relative humidity in the data center we recommend early warning alerts at 40 and 60 relative humidity with critical alerts at 30 and 70 relative humidity. High humidity low humidity cause damage in data centre server rooms. While temperature is a concern it is the humidity that can cause the most damage. While servers will chug along just fine down to 50 f it would cost way too much money to keep temperatures this low year round.

When the air is dry however static electricity can travel more easily. That may seem rather warm to some. If humidity is too low the dry air will lead to electrostatic discharge esd which can damage critical server components. Our recommendations on humidity alerts remain the same as they were in 2005.

Humidity the concentration of water in the air is a variable with undesirable consequences for a data center at either extreme. If the humidity level is too high then the humidity will develop condensation. What makes humidity such a dangerous problem is its two pronged attack. What is a minimum acceptable humidity for a server room and what is the best way to introduce proper humidity into the environment.

Extremely low humidity in server room rooms without computers in the same building are around 35 humidity. Especially considering data center expert don beaty told data center knowledge that the average server room temperature falls somewhere between 73 and 75. Did you know that the relative humidity rh in server rooms and data centers should be between 40 and 60 rh.