[jmclnx]

When I was a operator at a computer room (early 80s) with 3 Wang VS Systems and a couple of 2200 systems and multiple large line printers. The company had the cheapest AC Systems installed and no raised floors, all wires would drop down from the ceiling instead.

So in the summer time, the room would sometimes be well above 90F (32C). When that happened we had to have multiple large fans brought in. To add to that, the room was on the top floor (3rd) and during heavy rain storms, the roof would leak. So out came clear plastic tarps to cover the units.

I wish I had taken pictures. But I will say something, we never had no hardware failures due to heat and water dripping. After a few years the company finally built a real computer room.

[ButlerianJihad]

And here we have first-hand testimony of early datacenters wasting perfectly good water!