router and networking equipment in attic?

grimeire

So about to get fiber and was going to get ONT placed in the attic and place switch and a couple of 4U servers up next to it. but have a couple of concerns here. All rooms have cabling to the attic so it would be ideal to place it there.

At the moment the servers are in the office and also have switches and 5G router there to but the room.can be very hot due to the heat from all of the equipment. Plus the equipment is noisy as hell and the office doubles as a spare room so not ideal listening to these when staying.

So my question does anything else do this where they have the equipment in the attic? do ye have any issues with the temperature or similar? My main concern here is attic is too warm during summer or too cold during winter for the equipment to work correctly without over heating.

Another option I have here is to place the ONT in upstairs hot press or down stairs utility but these rooms are small. Also I it would mean I would have to get a patch panel for attic and connect all cables in the attic to it and then run the cables from the attic to the hot press or utility. Which will mean I will have to put in ducting to run these cables.

Any suggestions or advice is appreciated.

RetroEncabulator

It depends on the attic. A big dark slate, south facing roof can produce a LOT of heat in summer. Attics like that aren’t good location for electronics or electrical gear.

If it’s a cool attic, it’s probably fine.

Also from a fire safety point of view, a fire in an attic can cause huge damage, so it’s important to ensure any active equipment is not likely to cause an issue.

Personally, I’d avoid putting anything in a location like that.

Hot presses can be too warm too or can be damp in some cases.

Take note of fire / insurance risk implications that might arise in f equipment way overheats hidden out of view and away from smoke alarms . Putting equipment in a small confined unventilated area isn’t a great idea either. From a general view your present set up is probably best, though not good at all from a sound point of view.,

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058296273/router-and-networking-equipment-in-attic

I find it funny that you are worried about the heat in the attic and you are instead thinking of putting the stuff in the hot press.

From experience, the best argument against putting critical equipment in the attic is, and obviously it depends how accessible the attic is, is access to the equipment if upgrades or maintenance are required, Even something like a powercut might mean you have to go and switch the equipment back on.

I once worked on a cabling job in a private house and the owner wanted to put the router underneath the floorboards. I pleaded with him not to do it. He insisted. About 6 weeks later the ISP pushed an update which required it to be rebooted. Now admittedly, this was a consumer level CPE, which do need to be rebooted from time to time, if you are using a professional router the uptime should be pretty good, but as i said, if you get a powercut, and dont have a UPS, you might have to go up to the attic to press the power button. So please bear in mind how accessible the attic is.

I wouldn't be worried about cold in winter, Most electronic devices are rated to work fine in minus 20 C.

My ONT is practically silent. I don't know which one you have. I used to have a Cisco 2600 which sounded like a jet engine. Either way, I'd be an advocate of putting the ONT and related network devices in the office, or the utility room.

grimeire

When I say hot press it not really it's just a room that has shelves in it. There is no hot water tank or anything like that in the hot press. It's just a room where we keep towels, bed sheets etc...

Attic is accessible has a stira up to it and is floored so you can easy get to the devices. All my devices can be controlled via web ui so even if I do have to reboot I don't have to go to attic and everything is set to auto start if power cut happens.

The office is actually less accessible than the attic as I keep everything in a cabinet in the office and If I need to get anything I need to move a bed and other crap just to get to the back of the cabinet which is torture due to it being very tight. The office is also at it limits and there is no space left there if I want to add additional equipment.

I'm probably just going to buy a server enclosure with a tonne of fans and put everything into that in the attic. The other two options of the hot press and utility will only result in me having the same issue as the current office with lack of space plus having to run ducts to them for cabling is going to be torture.

There are smoke alarms in the attic and I will surrounded the equipment with plasterboard for fire resistance. Might put a smart tempature guage up there too.

Alun

What about the noise from these servers and fans in the room below, and/or sound transmission through rafters to other upstairs rooms where guests might be staying?

naughto

Have the ont in the attic and a switch beside it connecting to each room,I also had the router in attic but the insulation was killing the WiFi so moved to the spare room.

grimeire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120595262#Comment_120595262

There is 600mm of insulation between attic and the rooms below so highly doubt you will hear anything.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120595396#Comment_120595396

I have dedicated APs for wifi so the router being in the attic does not boder me.

Have you ever had issues with over heating of the devices and do you have them equipment in cabinets that regulate heat or just free standing?

naughto

Just free standing at the minute didn'thave any trouble with over heating I have a heat recovery unit in the attic aswell

grimeire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120597841#Comment_120597841

same here with heat recovery unit but they dont do much to control heat in the attic only the living areas of the house. Im keeping mine away from the HRV as not sure what kind of heat the HRV will be putting out.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120595539#Comment_120595539

Alun is talking about the adsorbed sound which will propigate through the joists & rafters and into the plasterboard and walls, etc. Isolation off the joists using pads is pretty much the only way to prevent that from becoming a nuisance drone down below.

I'd also point out that having a heat-source within the living area of a house can be beneficial in the Winter months as the thermal energy isn't lost, but by moving it into the attic it's always a loss. Depending on the amount of power consumed and assuming an almost 1:1 ratio of power to heat for IT equipment, that could be significant.

Alun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120598512#Comment_120598512

Exactly. No amount of attic insulation will have any effect on noise transmitted through rafters and joists. It's also not something you'll probably notice yourself during the day with all kinds of other noises around, but at night when everything is deadly quiet otherwise, even the slightest low level humming, whirring noise like that can drive you demented. I'm reminded of hotels and b&b's with en-suite extractor fans that drone on all night because some idiot left the light on.