Equipment Cooling and Humidity Challenge

Oddly enough, I have been confronted with much the same problem, and it ain't as simple to solve as one may think.

Among other ideas, one that made the most sense was to build a room around the equipment cabinets, the enviroment of which was to be well conditioned, and we actually did that in one computer server equipment room recently (super-conditioned space within an air conditioned space), but not in the original case I mentioned earlier.

The solution we eventually arrived at, with a keen eye on cheapness, was to suck air out of the equipment cabinets with high pressure fans (typically used to cool electronic equipment) so that invasive, humid air could not enter the cabinets. Over time, the very slight vacuum we created by doing that eventually stabilized, but by then, the internal air conditioning system returned things to normal without much condensation at all.

Can you provide more information about this "high pressure fans" approach? In my application, I envision a relatively large volume vacuum pump attached to my case with say a 2 inch air duct. When I remove the lid, conduct front panel operations and re close, I would then activate this pump for some 5 to 10 minutes to evacuate the case. Am I on the right track?

Depends upon what is accessed during the opening of the lid. If all you are doing is taking information from readouts or pressing buttons, how about using a membrane to seal off the electronics from the outside air and still allow you to read or press buttons through the membrane?

Just a thought!

A membrane is an excellent idea. Part of this challenge (I did not mention) is the need to insert and remove raid drives from servers. Since this drive movement operation is done on the order of once a day, perhaps the membrane could be somehow made like a rubbermaid lid for the case; peel back membrane insert drive-reseal membrane?.

Auxilary Vortex tube cooling to place positive air flow at panel opening.

Have you tried the air curtain approach? Forcing the air accross the opening will create a resistance & seperate the ambient from the interior or the case. Case in point, your supermarket freezer case. You would have to play with air flow & C.F.M."s (different motors & fan blades).

Okay here goes nuthin. Install drive bays where all you have to do is unlatch the lock mechanism and the drive slides right out. This way there is no need to access the backside of the drive to unplug the power and IDE cable. Place seals around the front of the drives to minimize moisture getting in. Place the moisture membrane back in place and start the cooling units. This should remove any condensate in the bay. After a few minutes start the units up.