[Anovice]

What is the best temperature to keep a server? I work for Peace Corps in
South America and it is about 84 degrees year round and very humid. Our office is airconditioned, but running AC is extremely expensive. My IT guy keeps the room with the server in it extremely cold. Is this necessary. Is there a optimal temperature for computer equipment?

[tickle]

General recommendations suggest that you should not go below 10°C (50°F) or above 28°C (82°F). I would not go much colder because as it gets colder things contract, that can cause a lot of problems with very precise computer parts, especially hard drives.

Good rule of thumb is temp for computer is normally a temp that is comfortable for humans. Room should be temperature/humidity controllled.

[Scleros]

What is the best temperature to keep a server?... Is there a optimal temperature for computer equipment?

Most equipment specifications list a temperature operating range, usually somewhere around 50-95 degrees Fahrenheit as well as a relative humidity range around 20-80% noncondensing. In your case, the humidity could be more of a problem than the temperature if the A/C doesn't dehumidify the air well.

The equipment's interior case temperatures are the temperatures to be concerned with. For example, in a poorly ventilated rack of servers, the interior case temperatures can be quite higher than the ambient room temperature and cooler air would be needed to compensate. Alternatively, if the rack and/or the equipment itself is force ventilated, adequate cooling can be achieved with higher ambient air temperatures. So, the "correct" answer is whatever temperature provides for proper cooling of the equipment. In practice, I set the thermostat around 70 degrees to be human comfortable and add additional forced ventilation if necessary to keep case temperatures within required ranges and to limit excessive fan noise and wear. Hardware monitoring capabilities built into the equipment help in this regard.

Also see Recommended Data Center Temperature & Humidity.