Paint for walls and ceiling of a datacenter?
 

We're re-working our datacenter, and moving servers around. While everything is clear, we had a construction company suggest we paint the walls black and the ceiling black. Any idea why this could be? He went on and on about heat transfer and reducing heat.. Is this at all true? Or was he blowing smoke?

Hi, and welcome to the forums. You may be interested in this thread: http://datacentertalk.com/showthread.php?t=15343


Ken

I know a number of places that did paint their ceiling and areas above door height black. This was done to try and hide the pipe work and cable tray. As far as hiding was concerned, it worked, nobody noticed the amount of water piping above the racks. But it cost them in lighting something like 10-20% more.

I'd assume that not only would the lighting cost more but the power bill must have fluctuated a bit, probably not noticeable, but it depends on how big the space is.

That's 10-20% more light as there is a reduction in reflective surfaces, which means 10-20% more electricity.

I'm sure there are other colors - or patterns, even - that would serve just as well to hide things, if that's the goal. I prefer lighter colors on the walls myself.

Yeah, I agree that it would increase the cost of lighting. Also, working in a datacenter, you want as much light as possible. Give me white walls every time.