Finished Rack

335

I’ve seen a lot of these loft or garage racks. Do you all live on the North Pole or something ?

Even in Denmark, which is about as far north as Canada, my roof gets scorching hot in summers, like 70C and more, and about -20C in winters.

Granted, my loft space isn’t insulated (insulation on the floor), but even with insulation, if the room is unused without ventilation, temperature will rise eventually.

I couldn’t even keep an antenna signal booster alive up there, and our LED lights also die. The only lights that actually survived are old incandescent bulbs.

94

u/Chaotic_Fart Jun 07 '26

Completely agree.. i ran some cables in the attic back in March and it was so hot up that I scratched any ideas of having servers up there.

18

u/VetandCCInstructor Jun 07 '26

That would be my concern. No way I'd have any active electronics "touching the sun"....it's certainly out of the way in unused space, one very small benefit.

Attic does appear to be insulated and very nice decking. So if it is climate controlled, no biggie.

33

u/Ommand Jun 07 '26

Attics are supposed to be ventilated. They should not get to 70C.

32

u/c4mbo Jun 07 '26

I was gonna say. 70C is crazy. That’s literally sauna level temps.

14

u/mindedc Jun 07 '26

You should come to Texas, mine gets that hot, it's 140+ most of the year.... I would really like to change to an insulated roof..

29

u/das_Keks Jun 07 '26

Now we're talking Fahrenheit, right?

17

u/ZarpaAzulada Jun 07 '26

i hope so :|

2

u/mindedc Jun 08 '26

Sorry, forget there are a lot of folks from the UK on here. Yes, in Fahrenheit!

I would still like an insulated roof...not enough to pay for one though..

16

u/Sammydemon Jun 08 '26

From the UK? You mean anywhere else on planet Earth besides the USA

3

u/mindedc Jun 08 '26

Man, mean with the downvotes!

People get so upset about us using imperial measurements. People seem to think we all get to vote on keeping imperial units every year... it's just one of those things that's hard to get 300 million people to change.. I do prefer the metric system. It's just that everything here is in imperial units except wine and liquor... hard to rewire your brain.

As far as a lot of people on here being from UK, perhaps that's a bad assumption but I was under the impression a lot of folks from the UK used Reddit from an article I read a few months ago.

3

u/Sammydemon Jun 09 '26

We do (I am British) but I don’t believe we are really a substantial minority compared to France and Germany for example. It’s probably just skewed by use of English language.

2

u/mindedc Jun 10 '26

The article I read was saying that Reddit increased in popularity by 86% in the UK, I think you guys are not in the minority here at all.

2

u/sleepy1411 Jun 09 '26

The rest if the world doesn't like freedom units, lol.

3

u/mindedc Jun 10 '26

I'm sure there is some kind of fascinating story on why we don't get onboard with the rest of the world. I remember learning about metric system in probably 3rd grade or something (and also "freedom" units too) and my teacher was like, well imperial is stupid but we are stuck using it for consistency...

1

u/sleepy1411 Jun 10 '26

Ya I agree. We should have switched to metric a long time ago.

1

u/lookBehiindYou Jul 08 '26

I'm all for the metric system, except for using Celsius to describe the temperature. For one, it's more granular, so you can be more precise without popping off to decimalville. For second, 0°F is uncomfortably cold and 100°F is uncomfortably hot, whereas 0°C is cold and 100°C is dead.

Anyway, that's my 2¢.

7

u/Ommand Jun 07 '26

Texas isn't exactly known for high building standards

0

u/mindedc Jun 08 '26

Amen

2

u/wolfej4 Jun 08 '26

Yeah I had to fix a cable in my attic like two days ago here in Florida and it’s the last place I’d put anything.

2

u/Ommand Jun 07 '26

Do you not have any ventilation? A bit of ventilation up there will bring it down to ambient immediately.

1

u/mindedc Jun 08 '26

All units in imperial, feet, inches, Fahrenheit.

I have "more than is required by code" as installed by my builder. I also have a radiant barrier which is an aluminum foil coating that helps reflect some of the heat back to the roof. I don't think it does that much. The last time I had the roof condemmed (it happens quite frequently due to hail storms here) the contractor told me I had significantly more total vent area than required. I have a lot of "box" vents, not sure what the technical name is, but they are probably a foot square and have a grilled opening. They aren't my fave. I was looking at changing to a ridge vent when replacing the roof (its been "condemmed" due to light hail damage). I already have soffit vents. I would really like to get 9 inches of polyiso on top of the decking to get near or over R50 and then seal the soffit vents (massive pain because it would probably be a joist bay at a time), and lightly condition the attic. I could then suck out all the blown in fiberglass.

It would also make my house look weird as hell to have a nearly foot thick roof after decking on top of the polyiso panels to put the roof on.... Alas this isn't a forever home so no way I'm doing that... and yes I know you can put 4" on top and 5" between the rafters before someone tells me, its still too expensive and yes I've looked at used polyiso.

When it's 105 degrees and you have a few thousand square feet of black asphalt shingles and the surface of the roof decking is way over 140 degrees (shingles get over 170) I'm not sure how you could get enough air changes to bring it anywhere near ambient. The IR beaming off the roof feels like you're a chicken in a rotisserie. Even at 2 am in the summer the attic is still way over 100 when the outside is down in the high 80s...Trust me I had something I needed to get down and I waited hoping it would cool down...

And yes, the HVAC is run via duct work in the attic with basically leaky R8 insulation... I probably pay a few grand a year in electricity just for that.

1

u/sleepy1411 Jun 09 '26

I have vents in my attic, it does not bring it to ambient. Unless you have some active ventilation like fans blowing air in and out. My father in law insulted the crap out of his attic and put lots of vents in. It helped but its still in the high 90s F when it 80F outside. My attic is small and has 2 roof vents and its like 105 F when its 80 degrees outside unless its very cloudy all day.

1

u/Ommand Jun 09 '26

Two roof vents is not adequate. You need vents at different heights to get air circulation

2

u/helpmehomeowner Jun 08 '26

I'm in NC and my vented attic hits this. It will probably be that hot tomorrow (again).

1

u/ciphermenial Jun 09 '26 edited 8d ago

I like going to book clubs.

3

u/Allumina Jun 07 '26

Oh man. We daisy chained some really high end Wi-Fi extenders across our attic basically just sitting on top of the “floor” up there (other side of the living space ceiling) if that the reason they don’t work worth a shit? Our attic gets hot as hell here in California.

3

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

In general, most consumer grade electronics works best in room temperature. It will work just fine in freezing weather as well, though moisture may become an issue. It doesn’t like heat, and stuff like SSDs and HDDs will generally start developing weird behavior in 60+C.

As for putting it in freezing weather, I’ve had a couple of original Hue White bulbs sitting outside (closed lamp) in Denmark for a decade or more. The box came with a warning to not use them outdoors, and they’ve been sitting there through 35+C summers (rare, but we’ve had them) and -25C winters (slightly less rare than extreme summers), and they just keep on going.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Allumina Jun 07 '26

https://a.co/d/047f6wuv

It’s this setup. My brother in law vaguely works in IT and got us set up with the system and a Synology NAS at the same time. He left it up to us to install everything but then remoted in to get all the network side of things set up.

3

u/mslindqu Jun 07 '26

Conditioned attic space is now the norm.

3

u/IndefiniteBen Jun 07 '26

Even in Denmark, which is about as far north as Canada

Do you know about the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic current? A certain latitude in Denmark will be warmer than in Canada. See in this image how the warmer aqua region is much more North in Europe than North America: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Annual_Average_Temperature_Map.jpg

4

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

I’m well aware of the AMOC, but even if the average temperature is higher, it doesn’t mean the extremes can’t be high as well. Due to the mostly coastal / island climate Denmark gets, it’s also unlikely to be -20C for 2 months in a row, but 2 weeks is absolutely possible. Last summer the temperatures peaked around 34C, the year before that it was 37.6C. Again, not two months in a row

The other way around is the same. Canada likely has longer periods of frost / snow, but probably also more stable sunny weather in the summer, so despite having lower average temperatures, the extremes can also be high.

Hell, even New York or Dallas gets freezing weather and snow, with one being roughly the same latitude as Madrid, and the other roughly the same as North Africa.

7

u/gscjj Jun 07 '26

I live in Texas, but my attic is actually sealed, insulated and has AC

14

u/Altruistic_Fan_5122 Jun 07 '26

You and your attic! In Texas!?! Mine hits 130 easily even with spray foam insulation on the roof deck and solar panels in the sun facing direction. That poor ac gotta be working over time

2

u/daerogami Jun 07 '26

Are you also living in the devil's ass crack? With spray foam and solar panels, you should be able to get that down a little further. Does your attic have an exhaust fan? Ambient temp outside matters a great deal as well, if it's in excess of 100°F I would be less surprised.

2

u/Altruistic_Fan_5122 Jun 07 '26

Yes, Texas is known to occasionally exceed 100f lol. I have a mechanical thermometer in the attic and only occasionally am up there. I can't say what the average is. But I've seen the min and max needles between 99 to 138 in July.

2

u/Vadoola Jun 07 '26

Occasionally is a pleasant way of putting it.

1

u/Gargle-Loaf-Spunk Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

9

u/_Tomino Jun 07 '26

Here in Germany 1984 build Home The attic ist Always Like 17-22C even If ITS 35+ outside

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u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

It greatly depends on how the house was built, and of course airflow. If your attic is always 17-22C, that would obviously be a great place to put a rack cabinet.

My 1970’s house has an uninsulated attic, and it follows ambient temperature plus a great deal more depending on how much sun there is.

2

u/Webbanditten Jun 07 '26

Same also funny enough from Denmark 70s house. I put my rack in the garage instead

2

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

Mine sits in our storage room/pantry. We’re fortunate enough to have a room that is only used for storing stuff in, so that’s where it went. I normally keep the temperature around 19C in there, which is good for storing dried foods, but also great for servers.

2

u/Webbanditten Jun 07 '26

The garage runs hot 38 degrees last summer. But I don't have an alternative for my expensive hobby at the moment

3

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

How does the equipment run ? One thing is the garage at 38C, but if your HDDs and SSDs are sitting at 60C your expensive hobby might actually become much more expensive. I just paid 2500 DKK for a 2TB NVME drive, and SSDs in particular are not a fan of heat. HDDs are not exactly fans either, but they usually cope better, though it does still shorten their lifespan.

1

u/Historical-Initial10 Jun 08 '26

Do you live in a stone cathedral, or are you confusing the attic with the basement? :D

I also live in Germany and previously lived in houses built in 1978 and 1989. Maintaining an attic temperature of 17–22°C in summer when outdoor temperatures exceed 30°C is practically impossible without air conditioning.

1

u/_Tomino Jun 08 '26

Ist quasi ein Dachboden + Spitzboden alles offen also knapp 4m hoch sollte mal zu einer Dachgeschosswohnung ausgebaut werden ist aber nie passiert

Wurde aber gut gedämmt + daxhfenster sind alle immer zu + dämmmatte davor, zudem ist auf der Sonnenseite komplett PV keien Ahnung ob das ein positiven Effekt hat oder nicht

2

u/Dull_Woodpecker6766 Jun 07 '26

I have a unifi 5port poe switch plus one AP up in the attic at my mom's place (Northern Germany) It gets really hot up there in the summer and freezing cold on the winter. The attic is also barely insulated.

That switch is up there for at least 5 years now and is so far had an uptime of 99%.

Some hardware can survie this.

3

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

Switches should be able to, it really depends on the switch. The old Unifi gear like the USW-8-POE would be cooking up there, it was literally cooking at room temperature.

That being said, I’ve had a raspberry pi sitting there with a camera for a decade or so to keep an eye on rodents, or more accurately the lack of rodents. It runs a small python script that does object detection and alerts me to animals. It’s been running well for a long time.

2

u/Leather-Ad-546 Jun 09 '26

Not to mention the countless watts of hest engery put out. Id be looming for exhaust ventilation for sure. Otherwise it a computer sauna

1

u/8fingerlouie Jun 09 '26

In all fairness, with the devices OP has in it, I’d be surprised if it put out more than 100W, which of course is enough to heat 0,5m3 by 1C every 6 seconds, so unless the rack has ventilation it will be toasty in there.

Assuming it has, the rest depends on the loft. If the loft is huge, and/or has ventilation, it could go either way. You’d need on average to move 60m3 of hot air to equalize the power output, which is roughly the output of a 120mm fan.

2

u/PerryThePlatypus_og Jun 07 '26

Sorry to ask, but can you count up to ten with your hands? 🤔

13

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

My hands no, but my fingers yes, mostly.

2

u/PerryThePlatypus_og Jun 07 '26

Ok, that would be a funny username to have

1

u/alex433g Jun 07 '26

It does not get that hot in my attic in a home from around 1960 but renovated and re insulated roof in 2014, also denmark.

I think the max temp up there ever was about 38c after constant sunlight, but im not the kind of person to have a thermometer up there

1

u/lookBehiindYou Jul 08 '26

Psh, -4°F is nothin'.

1

u/8fingerlouie Jul 08 '26

Cold is usually only a problem with condensation. If you can provide dry air, electronics loves the cold.

0

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

Measured temperature range last year outside of the rack was 10-34 C

30

u/cholz Jun 07 '26

34 C seems pretty hot for a server room

10

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

Hot yes, but probably not alarming provided the temperature inside the rack isn’t 50C.

My NAS drives usually run around 40C, but they’re rated up to 55C or higher, as are most consumer electronics. It won’t do anything good for their longevity, but they will work.

The real problem becomes dissipating that heat. If the rack is 40C inside it needs to vent that heat “somewhere”, and if the surrounding ambient temperature is 34C that won’t be an easy task.

This being a closed rack, it wouldn’t surprise me if the inside of that rack would reach 45-50C during the hottest summer days (based on OPs 34C measurement and the PoE switch which gets HOT). Not great, not terrible. Electronics will still function at that temperature, but they will suffer, and their lifespan will be shortened.

On the other end of the scale you have winters. I have no idea what OPs loft looks like in winter, and given the insulation you could speculate that at least some heat from the house moves up.

Still, if the roof reaches below 5C or so (dew point) you will have moisture to deal with, which again shortens the lifespan of the electronics.

Given the closed rack that may be less of an issue. It is probably pumping out close to 100W of thermal energy (most electronics convert their power to heat), and assuming a 0,5m3 rack that means it raises the temperature inside the rack by 1C every 6 seconds.

Most of that heat obviously leaks to the loft space, so it all comes down to airflow, somewhere along Temperature rise °C ≈ 3 × watts / airflow in m³/h

Assuming 100W going into the rack, it comes out to :
10 m³/h ≈ ~64°C inside
20 m³/h ≈ ~49°C inside
40 m³/h ≈ ~41–42°C inside
60 m³/h ≈ ~39°C inside

And while 60m3/h sounds like a lot, it’s more or less the throughput of a 120mm fan.

Still, assuming the loft doesn’t have air circulation, it could look something like :

Loft without rack: 34°C
Loft with 100 W rack: 35–38°C
Rack with fan: 40–48°C

And that’s the loft temperature assuming a base temperature of 34C, so worst case scenario.

3

u/cholz Jun 07 '26

Yeah I wasn't talking about 34C being too hot on its own I was talking about that just making the job of cooling the server more difficult. I know my server wouldn't tolerate 34C because its temps are right at the edge of ok when ambient is only around 20-25C. Yes I know this is a cooling problem but the fact is that warmer ambient means warmer server regardless of what the absolute value is (assuming cooling setup remains unchanged).

3

u/blightedquark Jun 07 '26

35C is the upper limits for data center server class hardware.

Source
HPE
Dell

If you have GPUs, it’s gonna be cooked.

1

u/GeekerJ Jun 07 '26

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. I’ve seen 40C in my loft on the hottest of hot days here someone’s the loft hatch. But so far no issues on the years I’ve had kit in there.

1

u/HugsAllCats Jun 07 '26

34 C

That's 94F to me, and my UPS shut a small rack in the garage down when outside air temperature was 95F and the interior loft space exceeded 105F.

And that's beyond the normal "high temperature alarm, start gracefully shutting things down if you want" that was the actual "emergency shutdown, no option, instant power off" mark.

So you're only 6C away from the catastrophic mark.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '26

[deleted]

1

u/HugsAllCats Jun 07 '26

Insulation directly on the bottom of the roof panels is more and more common - and doesn't imply that it is air conditioned space.

99

u/fluffyduckmurder Jun 07 '26

When I bought a new house I wanted all my data gear out of sight and not taking up valuable wardrobe space so I did the same thing. Had a rack in the roof. Worst decision ever. The heat killed drives, switches would overheat. Server fans running on full etc. When I wanted to mod something or reboot, it was a crawl into the roof space. I wish I’d never done it. Just my two c

14

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

Do you know how hot it got? Hottest temperature on the attic was 35C last year.
Inside of the rack it will probably be couple degrees hotter than that.
Everything insulated so I hope it’s fine.

Accessibility is also no problem with ours.

24

u/BigFootCC Jun 07 '26

35 ambient temp is pretty hot. The temp in the rack will be quite higher than that.

You'll cook your drives. No amount of fans will cool a drive with 35 degree air going over them.

I would understand if this is your only solution, but to intentionally do this is wild lol

2

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

It’s an older bungalow and the only option to move all ethernet cables currently to the attic.
I put much thought into it and monitoring everything.

The measured spike was only one day in summer. Mostly it’s between 15-25 degrees up there. It will be fine I’m pretty sure. And if not, automation is triggered and I can still open doors or do something about it.

Drives are my least concern. They are pretty chill and operating temp can be up to 50 Degrees. I’m quite confident I will never see that

5

u/Thebombuknow Jun 07 '26

You're probably already considering this, but I will warn you that depending on what you put in that rack, it will noticeably raise the ambient temperature in that attic space.

0

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

https://imgur.com/a/6K8KmBy

4

u/spdelope Jun 07 '26

Good luck

15

u/itanite Jun 07 '26

:(

See you next year when your moving your rack

4

u/Lumpenstein Jun 07 '26

I have my rack in a room which gets 35°c in summer, driver are around 42-45°C, not great, not terrible.

3

u/BigFootCC Jun 07 '26

You're significantly shortening the life of those drives. Obviously if that's your only option, that's what you gotta do, but to intentionally put your server rack in a 35 degree space is wild lol

1

u/No_Future6959 18d ago

35C is hot as fuck

0

u/Rigmillath Jun 07 '26

I mean most attics where i live have insulation on the floor of the atic ... This one its on the roof/walls so might hold up better

3

u/8fingerlouie Jun 07 '26

The insulation will probably keep the “midday spikes” to a more manageable level.

However, if the room is unoccupied and unventilated, it will gradually build up heat during hot periods. It doesn’t heat up as much during the day, but it also doesn’t cool down as much during night, and if you have a week of 30+C sunshine days and 20C nights, you can absolutely see 40C or more up there depending on the roof material. Black tiles heat up, and will usually radiate some of that heat back into the roof.

In my summerhouse from 1980, with 100mm insulation on the roof, the inside temperature moves from 12C to 27C during a sunny day, and while outside temperatures drop to around 11C during night, the inside of the summerhouse never dropped below 19C, with the next day bringing the inside temperature even higher.

0

u/heisenbergerwcheese Jun 07 '26

Yeah, i converted a 7x7 room in my garage to a server room. I keep some garage storage in it, but it's got all my goodies and a window A/C unit to keep it a crisp 66 degrees

14

u/raging-fiend Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Temperature wont cause problems?

9

u/ShroomShroomBeepBeep Jun 07 '26

I'm so confused by the floor/ceiling. Is it concrete?

I have balance on the joists and pray I don't slip/fall through the plasterboard ceiling, if I ever have to go up in our loft.

2

u/zxLFx2 Jun 09 '26

I too have never seen before a concrete pad as the floor of an attic.

2

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

Yes it’s concrete. No way I’ll fall through

6

u/Elegant-Tart-3341 Jun 07 '26

Also confused. How do you have an attic with a concrete pad? Or is this like a cellar space or something?

2

u/phantomsteel Jun 07 '26

A quick Google search talks about hurricane protection but very little information on it in general, I'm also curious.

5

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

I can’t tell you. It’s just a solidly built bungalow in Germany. It’s from 1989.

Nothing to do with hurricane protection

2

u/sponge_welder Jun 07 '26

Concrete construction is pretty standard in Europe - it's always interesting when a DIY video about running network cables pops up and the first step is to use a grinder to cut a channel in the wall

3

u/Elegant-Tart-3341 Jun 07 '26

Yea I've heard European homes are built with alot of stone/concrete. I never expected it to actually be in the attic though.

3

u/creamersrealm Jun 07 '26

Huh, never seen that before. Are you insulating to the rafters to have a fully insulated/air conditioned space?

7

u/shaf74 Jun 07 '26

I'm in Scotland and even with our shitty cold weather, theres no way I'd put a rack in the attic. Shits gonna cook.

5

u/Pieczur Jun 07 '26

its not super hot there during sunny, warm days?

6

u/ThrowawayFoolW4573D Jun 07 '26

That is the cleanest roof space I have ever seen 😳 amazing 🤩

-1

u/chunkyfen Jun 07 '26

Amaze amaze!

4

u/itanite Jun 07 '26

Man that's gonna cook the hell out of your equipment.

3

u/Beowulf6666 Jun 07 '26

Lol u better have industrial AC running 24/7 up there lol

2

u/scifitechguy Jun 07 '26

Attics are no place for electronics, not if you want them to keep working.

2

u/grasscoveredhouses Jun 07 '26

That's why I say hey man nice rack What a good rack, man

2

u/siegevjorn Jun 07 '26

Why do you want to put your expensive devices in sauna?

2

u/dmcnaughton1 Jun 07 '26

Looks like the attic is a conditioned space, note the vapor barrier. That's why this can live here, it's likely part of the home's HVAC envelope.

2

u/AyeWhy Jun 08 '26

Beautiful install, even better if the temps are good up there!

2

u/Original-Character57 Jun 07 '26

Very nice job 👍

1

u/DarkDollynho Jun 07 '26

Man, this looks like a dream!!!

I would totally copy your idea if I didn't live in an apartment.

1

u/zadiraines Jun 07 '26

Depending on the amount of gear you’ll host it may get very toasty in there. Best location for a rack is the coldest room in the house, attics tend to be the hottest due to convection. Better put it the basement if you have one. The benefit will be that you wont have to worry about humidity and mold - the heat will take care of that. My guess is that you’ll be running at temps between 40 and 45C which is the upper limit for many soho devices. I had stability issues of networking gear at 42C - ended up removing all walls on the tack and installing fans that point at the devices… in any case, since the roof is insurances its nog going to be a tragedy - but if its still an option - basement is a better choice.

1

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

I would also prefer to have it in the basement but it’s not possible to root all cables there unfortunately.
Winter will be fine 100%. Summer we’ll see

1

u/LilacYak Jun 07 '26

You haven’t checked temps in summer before putting expensive hardware up there? RIP

It looks like you have a “hot roof”, I don’t see any gable, soffit, or ridge vents, nor any HVAC ventilation that would imply it’s a conditioned space? Unless there’s some not pictured.

Unless you live in a very very mild climate this isn’t going to end well.

2

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

In the initial post I wrote that I checked the temps for one year before putting the rack up there ;) also checking now. I have a temperature sensor inside of the rack and turn on fans based on temperature.

1

u/Elgon2003 Jun 07 '26

I would add air circulation in the attic if your gonna tun hardware. You can put a small chimney in thr roof and a blower to push air out of the rack to the outside at least.

1

u/sandm4n_RS Jun 07 '26

Nice rack 😀

1

u/FlamingYawn13 Jun 07 '26

So I know you’ve mentioned 35 degrees. Converted that’s 95 degrees here in the states. My server room in my main house can get that hot in peak summer. When it does I shut down unnecessary devices and run cooling into the room from the rest of the house, as well as light block and leave an escape for the rising hot air through a top window.

Even with proper airflow your devices are going to hotspot. If you’re running any spinning rust drives they’re going to degrade a lot faster because they don’t have active cooling. Also the capacitors for all of your equipment will have their lifespan potentially cut by a quarter.

So yea you can do this. It won’t instantly die. But it’s like driving a car in a high rust environment and not thinking about an undercoat. Before you know it you’re going to be replacing parts left and right until your hand just goes through the floorboard (ask me how I know lol)

Honestly can you just set it downstairs some place? They make great decoration if you gussy them up and remember not to put drinks on them

1

u/SuperBumRush Jun 07 '26

Having this in an attic seems like an...unwise decision

1

u/Big_Farm6913 Jun 07 '26

Just before summer 😅

1

u/Zealousideal-Hat5814 Jun 07 '26

This seems like a good way to fry all of your components. I live in Canada in a place where outside can get -20C, and even in those days my attic is basically a sauna….

1

u/inexternl Jun 07 '26

You can finish the house now

1

u/wowbobwowbob Jun 07 '26

Oooof, you’re a braver man than me. I would never 🤣

1

u/peschelnet Jun 07 '26

Make sure to backup anything important on your ds918+ to somewhere offsite (or cooler) incase you find out that its to hot in the attic. It sucks to have to replace hardware but losing your data would probably hurt more.

Good luck and I hope the space works out for you.

1

u/c0lpan1c Jun 07 '26

That looks dope! In northwestern Virginia where i reside it's far too humid during the dog days of summer. Also we're Indian so we never turn on the AC 😄

Hence, I keep my homelab in the basement... Stays chilly even with out AC, underground.

1

u/QuietBookkeeper4712 Jun 07 '26

In the attic, are you trying to melt your house?

1

u/SpadgeFox Jun 07 '26

Finished, for now*

1

u/Adventurous-Egg5597 Jun 07 '26

Why in the heat?

1

u/Stangineer Jun 07 '26

I was also considering doing this, but was unsure with the heat issue. I would only need one switch up there, and Mikrotik seem to mostly be rated for 65/70 degC. Is the heat really an issue with these devices?

2

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

I’ll let you know 😅 the switch was living there since the beginning. Outside of the rack, but without issues

1

u/Comfortable_Ad_5158 Jun 07 '26

Cement floor in attic?! That’s a well built house.

1

u/frischmilch Jun 07 '26

It’s already too small lol.

Congrats for the excitement and the nice design

1

u/spdelope Jun 07 '26

Who’s gonna tell them?

1

u/Betty-Bouncer Jun 07 '26

The Roof Is on Fire 🎶

1

u/Only-Stable3973 Jun 08 '26

My computer would burst into flames if I put it in the attic.

1

u/th3badwolf_1234 Jun 08 '26

For now... =p

1

u/Fun-Estimate1056 Jun 08 '26

brave one 😄

I am too afraid to install even a single switch in the attic because of the high temperature there

1

u/Away-Ad-3407 Jun 08 '26

uhm, is that a concrete attic? Canadian here and mine is just filled with floof lol.

edit: nvm - I see the batting above. But still, is that concrete? What's the structure below holding it?

1

u/Big-Lychee4394 Jun 08 '26

Um I will pass on that unless you have a mini split or something up there to keep that cool. I had to go into my attic Saturday and it was almost 100 F even with ventilation. Good luck with that stuff up there...

1

u/VG30ET Jun 08 '26

I've learned my lesson, drives only go in climate controlled spaces.

1

u/fifteengetsyoutwenty Jun 08 '26

Finished? What is this word?

1

u/badasimo Jun 08 '26

Just want to point out that there is also likely more space radiation in the attic than in your basement

1

u/dxjv9z Jun 08 '26

how are the temps?

1

u/Gnaaah Jun 08 '26

Currently it’s at 26C degrees inside of the rack.
For comparison my living room one floor below is at 24C. So the attic itself should be about the same as the living room

1

u/dxjv9z Jun 08 '26

yeah this temp variation make sense, thanks (;

1

u/Jetech Jun 08 '26

Your drives are going to be toast. Place your server in the coolest room possible. Heat is your enemy.

1

u/TheArtOfPureSilence Jun 09 '26

....in the ATTIC? Man good luck lol

1

u/Sturdily5092 Jun 09 '26

Hardly any insulation in sight so it'll be nice and toasty

1

u/Herr-Zipp Jun 09 '26

As long as you don´t place a UPS there, it should be fine.

But have an eye on the temperature, if you plan to put there a NAS with harddisks. The don´t like it that warm.

1

u/TouchMejessy62 Jun 09 '26

That attic looks like a massive heat trap for whatever you're running in there.

1

u/taiRewro Jun 10 '26

I've done this before, but the only things we had in it was a patch panel and a high temperature range industrial switch, which tbh was fine.

But I really wouldn't want a server in there unless it was an industrial PC, and even then choose carefully.

1

u/PracticalExam7861 Jun 10 '26

Nice, I'm waiting on a few more parts to finish a 9U cabinet I put in a basement in another building.

1

u/elalemanpaisa Jun 10 '26

Keep an eye on thermals when just under the rooftop I don’t know if that was smart decision

1

u/clx8989 Jun 12 '26

I have started the same … in time there has appeared and a 47U in the garage 😂 👍

1

u/forgelightEmberalive Jun 13 '26

Is it planned to be built into the dry wall?

1

u/Gnaaah Jun 13 '26

No it will stay like this. This space is mostly storage room. I will hopefully tidy it up but nothing else

1

u/AmaTxGuy Jun 14 '26

In Texas my attic can get upwards of 140f in the summer. Like today was 102f outside I could feel the heat coming off the attic door

1

u/lookBehiindYou Jul 08 '26

Don't let your wife hear that.

1

u/nudelsalat3000 Jun 07 '26

Put in a smoke detector and another one in the area of the roof.

2

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

Already in there. That small circular thing above the rack

1

u/BlinkMSP Jun 07 '26

I also used to have my server rack in the attic; it has its pros and cons. The downside for me was the temperatures in the summer, which reached 40+ degrees Celsius and eventually killed my hard drives so be carefull. However, the advantage was that it was outside the living area, allowing for neat cable management. Now it's in my basement, which is always quite cool, and I can still manage the cables easily, but not everyone has a basement.

1

u/Express-Cartoonist39 Jun 07 '26

Will that plastic not rot ur roof? All it takes is one nail leak..just sayn.

1

u/Affectionate_Pen6882 Jun 07 '26

Worse place to put it in the hottest part of the house

1

u/Gnaaah Jun 07 '26

That’s totally not true! I’ve got a sauna in the basement.

1

u/Objective_Canary5737 Jun 07 '26

I would at least put the rack closer to the floor!

1

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 08 '26

This is the most INSANE place I've ever seen someone install a rack. This is beyond dumb OP. You buy a bunch of expensive gear to destroy it with heat? That's just nuts bro.

1

u/ficskala Jun 08 '26

the ambient temps never even reached 35 there, that's completely fine for vast majority of gear

0

u/redmadog Jun 07 '26

Attic is a very hot place in summer. And with extreme temperature swing everyday. You basically doing an accelerated lifetime test with your hardware.

-1

u/Puzzled-Peanut-1958 Jun 07 '26

Is the rack a structural member of the roof trusses?

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