Do you need to put vents in for air conditioning?

[romolo]

Hi All,

I wanted to ask if you needed to put vents into a small air conditioned room to allow airflow.

There is a small server room that has 1-2 portable air cons keeping the temperature well. They are exhausted through window and wall.

It was suggested by electrical contractors undertaking other work that I should fit a vent in the fire door to allow the air to be sucked into the room.

Is this true? There is a substantial gap at the bottom of the door now and you can feel air being pulled.

They said to put a vent in a door which is marked a fire door with a sticker but is a room that does not form a fire walkway.

Do I:
a) Install a vent at all?
b) Can I do this in a door marked as fire door with sticker (could be over enthusiastic sticker person - however it does have servers in for small business).
c) Must I use special vent rather than a simple plastic grill from B&Q as some people are talking about something which sounds self sealing upon gases or something.

Many thanks in advance

R

[The Viking]

First,
A door marked "fire door" does not denote a door used for escape in case of fire, instead it is a fire rated door separating two independent fire zones. In your case, if there is a fire in your office it will give the fire brigade some time to put it out before it engulf your severs.

Any breaks or holes in fire doors or walls separating fire zones is generally considered a bad idea unless it is made with some sort of fire protection in mind.

But, that said, your units will need makeup air to enter the room in some way to function properly.

[romolo]

I have removed another air con from this room that had an exhaust going out of the window.

If I were to leave that exhaust uncapped this gives quite a large hold and is prob 1/2 the size of the grill I would fit.

I think this would be suitable.. How does this sound.

Many thanks for the reply

R

[nevinjohn]

If its just the servers in that room, with no human occupancy no ventilation is required, but cooling is required. Just recirculating the cooled air will be more than enough, than addition or extraction of air from the room.