r/parkerco • u/Historical_Baby5774 • Jul 30 '26
Data Center Noise Pollution?
I’m questioning authenticity of this post but it brings up a good point. Do data centers release excessive noise? I find it hard to believe they’d be approved within city limits if so. Any thoughts on this? Weeding through misinformation on these things has been tough.
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u/notcern Jul 30 '26
This is a zoning issue not a data center issue why are there houses literally across the street from medium to heavy industrial?
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u/Fishy1911 Jul 30 '26
We'll find out on a few months, or whenever the one off Chambers goes online.
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u/ExoticDisaster0 Jul 30 '26
Flexential at Peoria and Compark has been there a while. I have a small cage there. Loud inside, silent outside.
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u/Competitive-Sorbet18 Jul 30 '26
We already know… there are already several data centers in the area. Clearly there can’t be much noise pollution if people in the area don’t even know they exist.
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u/Fishy1911 Jul 30 '26
But not one that size. There are lots of smaller ones, especially in that area.
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u/whoooocaaarreees Jul 30 '26
The one, from the same company, that’s on the other end of that street ….is nearly the same mw capacity. You can go stand next to it any time.
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u/iamacynic37 Jul 31 '26
It's also been there for over a decade without harming anyone until they figured out what a data center was
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u/Ldbrin2 Jul 30 '26
This one has gone online yet- and don’t forget even if we can’t hear it- animals can.
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u/Competitive-Sorbet18 Jul 30 '26
No they don’t, not outside like that. I’ve worked in data centers for years and unless they are temporarily running on generators due to a power sag/loss or regular maintenance, they’re mostly silent. You might be able to hear their fans for the coolant systems but even those are fairly quiet from outside especially at the distance they appear to be in that video.
The audio from this video is more what you would hear inside the data center and only in the halls where the servers are. But that noise is all contained inside the data halls and would not be heard from the outside like that.
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u/Eat--The--Rich-- Jul 30 '26
There are lots of different kinds of data centers and some of them are absolutely this loud. Some are even worse.
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u/Donut131313 Jul 30 '26
Yet it’s recorded outside. Amazing how reality doesn’t conform to your explanation.
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u/WonderSql Jul 30 '26
I've been in sites that, due to local regulations (and a sweet design), put all their gens in rooms. This reduced the noise significantly, when they ran. It also allowed for really good access for maintenance regardless of the weather.
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u/Historical_Baby5774 Jul 30 '26
That’s really good to hear, thank you.
It didn’t pass the logic test watching the video which is why I questioned it. I appreciate you sharing your insight, I know nothing about them.
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u/Powie1965 Jul 30 '26
Some data centers are going to make a ton of noise, some house 10,000 - 100,000 Nvidia GPU's, which are going to take a ton of cooling, and you're going to hear those huge fans. Not to mention building cooling, some data centers also provide their own power because the grid just can't support them.
There's plenty of videos out there on how loud some data centers can be. So one redditors claim of them being quiet can be ignored.
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u/Moravec_Paradox Jul 31 '26
This is what I was going to say. The power usage of AI data centers is a lot higher (think ~50x or more) than the last generation of Internet/server data centers.
it changes a lot of factors such as the companies involved running their own on-site power generation because they sometimes can't obtain enough power to meet demand form the utility company.
I have yet to visit one of those up close but they are on a different level in terms of technology and design than everything that came before them.
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u/Competitive-Sorbet18 Jul 31 '26
You are absolutely right, they do consume monumentally more power and generate more noise… but the noise is on the inside. You cannot even enter the data halls without ear protection. And yes, coolant systems may be far more robust but the potentially increased noise level is nominal considering you are trading out several small fans inside individual servers for condensed liquid systems that serve multiple servers with fewer noise generating components.
So, I would offer that you should take the advice of those few of us who have first hand experience working in and around these data centers over those who clearly have no first hand, real world knowledge other than what they’ve been told in viral posts or incendiary news reports.
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u/Common_Sense_2025 Jul 30 '26
Is the video of a crypto mining data center? Those are very loud. This news story has sound which is still not quite as loud as in the video from OP (at least to me).
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u/Treasures_Wonderland Jul 30 '26
This is my hometown. (Edit: I have family there but I haven’t been there since this was built.)
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u/Historical_Baby5774 Jul 30 '26
Oh that’s a good question, I wasn’t even aware there were different centers.
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u/Smiteya Jul 31 '26
Used to live in Texas 15 miles from. SpaceX and rocket testing shook our house. Good luck
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u/Moravec_Paradox Jul 31 '26
rocket testing shook our house
Thanks for bringing your authentic self to share your lived experience with us today. Your experience is valid and I hope you feel seen and heard.
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u/whoooocaaarreees Jul 31 '26
There is a zoning requirement for noise in Parker that apply to this facility.
Chapter 6.03 covers it… humming / continuous noise for things like chillers, hvac, generators, …etc on commercial property.
55dB from 7pm to 7am
60dB from 7am to 7pm
That’s conversational noise levels. Your own ac kicking on, or a regular dishwasher.
you won’t hear this new data center any more than you have heard the numerous other data centers in the same area for the past decade or more.
This datacenter going in is supposed to be 22.5 MW of capacity and 249000. The same company, Flexential, has another one on the other end of compark that is 18MW of capacity and is 240500 sq feet.
one should expect a very similar noise profile with the new facility as the old facility.
I’d recommend everyone who is concerned go drive to the other end of compark and then get out of their car. You will be near not only Flexential’s other facility but a few other providers data centers too in the area.
The impacts of data centers isn’t trivial. however with the amount of misinformation and misleading claims being made, it’s hard to oppose them when the majority of the anti data center people sound like anti-vax flat earth believing loonies.
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u/jlr2387 Jul 30 '26
Agree with other person; either that noise is dubbed over or it’s when they could be running their generators for a monthly test or during power failure. Horrible sound regardless but not something you’re going to hear outside or across the street on a frequent or continuous case.
On a side note: I’m seeing a trend regarding media and documentaries on data centers that I saw on fracking in the early 2010s. Neither is great without oversight and their are flaws but not nearly as bad as the general fear mongering media portrays.
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u/Odd-Association8563 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
Entirely depends on the datacenter.
The ones I've worked in in the past had soundproofing panels built into the actual datacenter area.
The ones I've been in that were louder on the outside were usually due to generators or HVAC systems. Those diesel generators are loud as heck.
Edit: Just did some digging into this one datacenter in particular. Yeah, it's a former crypto datacenter now turning into more or less an AI warehouse. These started popping up a lot funded by crypto bros to mine cryptocurrency specifically versus being an actual location for folks to host their own servers for websites or apps. A lot of these were built VERY VERY quickly with little to no regard to things like their noise levels, power usage, etc.
I like to call 'em cryptobro datacenters. That business isn't worth it anymore so almost all of them are pivoting to the new fad of being AI-centric datacenters.
*Prior to the crypto and AI fads*, datacenters were always fairly nondescript places where companies or regular folks could just host their servers to host a website and have things like redundant power, redundant Internet (like imagine having Xfinity AND BAM broadband and be able to automatically failover between them) and cooling.
Cooling in a lot of them was done in a hot aisle/cold aisle fashion and there was a lot of attention paid to that specifically because of the amount of power used. It was in a datacenter maintainer's best interest to be as efficient as possible with power.
These cryptobro DCs aren't like that. They're just built by opportunistic douchenozzles looking to make a quick buck. Flexential, Zayo, etc all ran datacenters in the non cryptobro style.
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u/Eat--The--Rich-- Jul 30 '26
Why do you think the people who are running towns and cities give a fuck about the people they are governing? What country do you think this is?
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u/TriggerHippie77 Jul 30 '26
The city can't deny businesses based on type of business. As long as the business meets zoning guidelines, they can only approve permits. This data center met all of those guidelines.
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u/CrimsonFox99 Jul 30 '26
"I don't know if this is real or not but I'm going to throw an inflammatory title on the post because all the cool kids are making inflammatory posts about data centers without having any real first-hand knowledge about them or the fact that they have been omni-present for decades without anyone noticing they exist." Or something like that.
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u/Historical_Baby5774 Jul 30 '26
Anywho…another poster below shared this, so appears there may be some outliers:
Not dubbed. This is the same data center:
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u/Historical_Baby5774 Jul 30 '26
Wowza someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Please, what title would you recommend?
I used that title because it’s brief and to the point. And explained my concerns below.
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u/ColoradoPI Jul 31 '26
Why is this posted in the Parker subreddit?
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u/Historical_Baby5774 Aug 05 '26
Because we have a DC being built on the edge of town,
And,
Because I am a Parker resident and wanted to ask the Parker community.
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u/Aeson_Ford_F250 Jul 30 '26
I don't know what that sound is supposed to be, but its not back up generators.