My house isn't really conducive to home lab stuff. As such I have a DL360 in a very small closet (with a very large gun safe taking up the majority of the space). If I close the door, it heats up quickly and gets to be borderline too hot. Up til now I have been just leaving the door open 6-8" and that has been fine but I'd really like to do something a bit better, and will allow me to close the door.
I am curious what you all who have had to deal with heat have done so. I have some ideas but want to see what others have done.
@andrewm Welcome to the forums! I have had heat issues in the past as well. There are different schools of thought on this. I have seen some that have added a vent fant to vent hot air into the attic space. Also, adding a small mini split is efficient and can quickly cool things down and keep them that way especially in the hot summer months. Some also schedule shutdowns of servers when they aren't using them if you can do this and not hosting things that need to be running 24/7/365. Also, having an air return in the space would definitely help. I have found personally that most heat issues can be solved if you can figure out how to get air movement in the space. it doesn't always have to be cooled air, but just a flow of it.
I hope this helps. Let me know your ideas, would love to hear what you are thinking about doing here.
Brandon
this is a battle i've been facing for years. the fact is that moving heat out and cold air in isn't cheap or efficient.
all of Brandon's suggestions are great. you'll never cool the space without getting rid of the heat. finding a way to get air out of the room so cooler air can get in is the first step. AC Infinity makes some good gear that moves a decent amount of air.
you could also get a small (smallest you can find) portable AC unit. you just have to make sure you can exhaust the air from the unit. that's what i use. the closet i use is next to the attic on the second floor, so i just cut a hole in the wall and exhaust the air into the attic.
also, i cut down on a ton of heat by switching to lower powered mini PCs. higher electricity = more heat.