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Years ago a data center outside DC in Silicon Alley had an A/C failure. Our equipment was reporting temps of 140F on intake. We were allowed 10 minutes in, one
by cd34 15y ago
Years ago a data center outside DC in Silicon Alley had an A/C failure. Our equipment was reporting temps of 140F on intake. We were allowed 10 minutes in, one person doing work, another observer, both required to have squirt water bottles and a two-way radio. We were instructed not to carry anything and to use a cart. We were told not to remove equipment that weighed more than a few pounds.
I pulled 10 drives so we could run them to another data center as a 'just in case'. The guy I was with passed out about 60' from the door. The air temp outside was ~72F and they had portable hurricane fans blowing air into the data center.
In that ten minutes, I drank 32 ounces of water. I remember that because I went to pick him up, kicked my water bottle by accident and it fell over because it was empty.
He spent 30 minutes in an ambulance, about three hours in a hospital from 10 minutes exposure. It took me about two hours to recover to the point where I felt I could eat.
Don't lose respect for heat. :)
- cpeterso 15y agoYou guys deserve hazard pay. :)
- dennisgorelik 15y agoSaunas have 70C - 100C temperature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna You had only 60C (140F). Fainting after just 10 minutes in 60C is too fast. BTW, most likely reason your friend spent time in ambulance and hospital is because your employer wanted to be on the safe side, not because your friend really needed it.
- cd34 15y agoI'm reasonably sure the air temp wasn't 140F in the data center, but, he had Heat Stroke or Hyperthermia. He did collapse and I remember calling for help on the radio when I saw him go down. In the space of about 10 seconds when he said he was feeling weak, he went from looking flushed to pale as a ghost and bam, he was on the ground. He was wheeled off in a stretcher and I remember sitting in the back of the ambulance with him. After 30 minutes, he was still not feeling well and reluctantly accepted the hospital visit. He and I were business partners and this was one of our management contracts. It was ultimately his decision with my strong recommendation to go to the hospital since he was still weak. The paramedics offered ten more minutes on site, but, he opted for the hospital. We were young and dumb, now I'm not so young. Faced with the same situation today, I doubt I would do it again and I certainly wouldn't force an employee to do it.
- sounds 15y agoI'm glad you replied to the comment. Heat exhaustion (leading to heatstroke) is serious stuff. It really happens - even to young people at their peak condition. In dry climates, with mildly hot weather around 90-93 F. Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but awareness makes a big difference in these situations. It doesn't hurt to have a little EMT / Paramedic training too.
- adgar 15y agoIn fairness, that's not the whole story. When I sauna, I'm not doing anything remotely strenuous. I'm sitting around naked and not feeling the slightest stress. These guys were working in an emergency situation - clothed - and doing physical labor.
- dennisgorelik 15y agoI agree: stress from handling emergency situation + physical labor definitely contributed. But just 10 minutes of it still shouldn't have such serious effect.
- lusr 15y agoYet it did have that effect. Unless you're claiming the parent is lying? Or are you suggesting it's merely an unlikely event? The fact is people have all kinds of physical issues they might not even be aware of and you can't take that chance with people - not for legal reasons, not for ethical reasons. The best you can do is prepare in advance by training people in the situation to detect if they have any issues with the environment.
- sliverstorm 15y agoThe air in a sauna is very very humid, right? And the air in a server room will typically be very very dry. In a hot dry climate, you do lose water much faster.
- phamilton 15y agoI don't think that's right. When overheated, you sweat. Sweat leads to evaporation, which leads to your skin cooling. In humid environments, our sweat does not evaporate as well. This leads to less cooling, which leads to more sweating and thus more water loss.
- marvin 15y agoAnyone that's been in a sauna can verify this. High humidity humidity feels hotter. You can demonstrate this by throwing water onto the sauna heater - the sauna will instantly feel a lot hotter.
- sliverstorm 15y agoHmm... but what happens when you get dehydrated, which happens faster in a dry environment?
- dennisgorelik 15y agoYes: in dry climate you lose water much faster, so you cool off. So you should not faint that fast. But may be it was mostly due to stress...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 15y agoAre you actually claiming that the GP is lying? He's an eye witness, was instrumental in getting his buddy out. I'm pretty sure that if he felt his friend didn't need to be in the ambulance he would have omitted the bit about him passing out.
- dennisgorelik 15y agoNot lying. Most likely some relevant details are unintentionally omitted. It could be that his buddy had poor health or was too overweight. Or may be was quite stressed out even before going into that hot facility. Or stayed there longer than 10 minutes. Or the temperature was higher. Or the air was slightly toxic (that's actually my best guess). Or all of the above. But 10 minutes exposure to 60C dry air is not nearly enough for fainting.
- rdl 15y agoSeveral hundred thousand people from the US have recent experience working in 120-140F weather wearing 50-100 pounds of equipment and heavy clothing, often doing labor a bit more strenuous than pulling drives or racking servers.
- cd34 15y agoDisneyworld in Orlando Florida with an average summer temperature of 91F responds to dozens of heat stroke cases with people wearing shorts and shirts, merely walking around and waiting in lines to enjoy rides.
- learc83 15y agoIt is extremely humid in Orlando. Evaporative cooling through sweating doesn't work very well in those conditions.
- rdl 15y agoYeah, there's a wide variation in training, condition, and the level of care/equipment/hydration, and the results (and there are lots of heat injuries in the military, too). The OSHA limits are clearly not the limits of human performance (either low or high). One of the things is you acclimate to it over a period of a week or two fairly successfully, so if there were a datacenter which constantly operated in that range, you should be able to get staff who can handle it. (I'm sure steel mills and other industrial facilities have high temperatures, too).
- lusr 15y agoIf I read your comment correctly, it sounds like you're comparing healthy young people who have undergone extensive physical training and testing to technicians of a highly variable age who have gone through no such selection and training? Or are you really suggesting that any old technician can run around in a desert carrying military equipment with zero training or physical aptitude, or vice versa?
- wmf 15y agoI thought he was suggesting hiring Iraq veterans to manage data centers.
- chimeracoder 15y agoWhen Ramadan is during the summer, observant Muslims in hot Middle Eastern countries still have to work, oftentimes in the heat, and fasting includes no water either. Maybe it's because they're used to it, but the point is, 140 degrees is certainly doable with water, even if it's not a lot of fun.
- learc83 15y agoThe hottest recorded temperature on earth was 136. Average highs in the Middle East aren't anywhere near 140.
- ComputerGuru 15y agoHe may not have been very eloquent, but he wasn't saying that Middle East temps reach 140. (He was saying ME Muslims do x degrees without water, so 140 with water should be tolerable. X is anywhere from 90 to 120+ in certain ME countries).
- cperciva 15y agofasting includes no water either One of the strongest principles of Islamic law is that necessity overrides prohibition. If you're working outside in severe heat and becoming dehydrated, you're allowed to -- and arguably required to -- drink water, Ramadan or no Ramadan.