Cabinet cooling question
- Thread starter Towen7
- Start date
I'm with Huey, at least in the sense of not using cool/cold air straight from an A/C duct. Pulling in a lower room temp in would probably be ok. My initial goal would be to try and maintain the temperature and try and keep it in a 70-80 deg range inside the cabinet. If that's not possible by pulling the hot air out then resort to other options.
im going to keep on reading stuff like this because like in 2005 i was hoping to have a house just like you guys,
for the meantime, we bought a new cabinet to house our equipment but ive always depended my ventilation on the cheap method...
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Mobil ... B00080G0BK
its not much, but hopefully it would be helpful for others. i dont have a full fledged house like y'all but i like learning stuff like this. ive never expected to use the vents or a bathroom setup like flint just described. its genius to have the fan on the farther end, and just have it 'pull' the hot air out from there, instead of closer and have it 'audible'...
for the meantime, we bought a new cabinet to house our equipment but ive always depended my ventilation on the cheap method...
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Mobil ... B00080G0BK
its not much, but hopefully it would be helpful for others. i dont have a full fledged house like y'all but i like learning stuff like this. ive never expected to use the vents or a bathroom setup like flint just described. its genius to have the fan on the farther end, and just have it 'pull' the hot air out from there, instead of closer and have it 'audible'...
Jomari has a good option, although not sure if that big of fan would be noisy or not. Another simple solution, especially if your cabinet has and opening somewhere, is those usb laptop coolers. Before redoing my rack setup, I ran one to keep my receiver cool as it sat on top of the amp. Worked really well and I could never hear the fan running.
The cabinet is enclosed and in the room so I need to exhaust the hot air to another space, otherwise I'll just be recirculating hot air inside an enclosed cabinet. The room is already prone to getting hot so I'd prefer to exhaust the air to the attic, so that means running a duct. Othewise I'm just adding heat load to an already hot room. If I'm going to go through the troble of running a duct I may as well mount the fan remotely and eliminate any possibility of noise issues.
The ducting will need to be about 30' with four 90 degree bends in order to get to where I will put the fan in the attic. But a bathroom fan should still work well because the whole cabinet (without equipment) is less than 40 cubic feet. Even the smaller bathroom fans sold be able handle that even with all that duct. The small fans move 40 cubic feet per minute so I'll be recycling the air in the cabinet many times per hour.
The next hurdle is how to draw room air into the cabinet with the doors closed. Ideally the air would be drawn from directly beneath the rack. I'll get the duct and fans installed and worry about that later guess.
The ducting will need to be about 30' with four 90 degree bends in order to get to where I will put the fan in the attic. But a bathroom fan should still work well because the whole cabinet (without equipment) is less than 40 cubic feet. Even the smaller bathroom fans sold be able handle that even with all that duct. The small fans move 40 cubic feet per minute so I'll be recycling the air in the cabinet many times per hour.
The next hurdle is how to draw room air into the cabinet with the doors closed. Ideally the air would be drawn from directly beneath the rack. I'll get the duct and fans installed and worry about that later guess.
The cabinet doors are wood frames with almost full length/width glass inserts. I can't modify them.
I'm thinking I may be able to drill holes in the floor of the cabinet and holes in the cabinet's toe kick. The holes in the cabinet floor are in consequential. The holes in the toe kick should be tough to see, but I'll still need to find a way to cover (or color) the cut and unstained wood. Maybe some speaker cloth that will double as a filter.
All of the heat generating equipment is in the right section. The left and center sections only hold discs. The left section has a full partition between it and the center and is effectively isolated. The partition between the center and right cabinet stops about 4" from the top. If I can draw room air in from the toe kick on the right side cabinet and exhaust it from the top I think it'll work.
I'm thinking I may be able to drill holes in the floor of the cabinet and holes in the cabinet's toe kick. The holes in the cabinet floor are in consequential. The holes in the toe kick should be tough to see, but I'll still need to find a way to cover (or color) the cut and unstained wood. Maybe some speaker cloth that will double as a filter.
All of the heat generating equipment is in the right section. The left and center sections only hold discs. The left section has a full partition between it and the center and is effectively isolated. The partition between the center and right cabinet stops about 4" from the top. If I can draw room air in from the toe kick on the right side cabinet and exhaust it from the top I think it'll work.
The toe kick is about 3 inches tall or so and the right side cabinet is about 24 images wide. I'd also have to drill air holes into the floor of the cabinet.
Most of the wall behind is brick. There is an attic space above the back patio behind the lower right half of the cabinets. The pitch of the patio roof makes it impossible to go straight out from the top of the cabinet. If I want to dump heat into that space, the duct would follow the same path but go straight back instead of up at the corner. The duct woud be shorter but a problem is I'd have to install an outlet for the fan in the patio attic. There is already one in the attic over the room.
The top of the rack is about 2 feet above where the roof meets the fourth stud (from the left) in this picture. The right corner of the room is about another 3 feet to the LEFT on this pic. The horizontal board is the floor sill.
Most of the wall behind is brick. There is an attic space above the back patio behind the lower right half of the cabinets. The pitch of the patio roof makes it impossible to go straight out from the top of the cabinet. If I want to dump heat into that space, the duct would follow the same path but go straight back instead of up at the corner. The duct woud be shorter but a problem is I'd have to install an outlet for the fan in the patio attic. There is already one in the attic over the room.
The top of the rack is about 2 feet above where the roof meets the fourth stud (from the left) in this picture. The right corner of the room is about another 3 feet to the LEFT on this pic. The horizontal board is the floor sill.
For a space that's 2' W by 3' H (component residence) it seems we're making the cooling issue larger than life.
If you can access the 3" space under the bottom shelf, (toe kick) why not use two fans. One turning clockwise, the other counter clockwise. The only obstacal would be the shelving above, nothing a few holes wouldn't cure. Filtering the fan blowing in would prevent dust particals from entering the compartment and the evacuation is moot.
Rope
If you can access the 3" space under the bottom shelf, (toe kick) why not use two fans. One turning clockwise, the other counter clockwise. The only obstacal would be the shelving above, nothing a few holes wouldn't cure. Filtering the fan blowing in would prevent dust particals from entering the compartment and the evacuation is moot.
Rope
Because I don't want to blow hot cabinet air into the room, nor do I want to introduce any noise from fans mounted in the room or in the cabinet. Mounting two counter turning fans at the bottom of the cabinet wouldn't remove much hot air from the top.
Dennie
Well-Known Member
I didn't read the whole thread, but wanted to make sure you've see this site...
Active Thermal Management http://www.activethermal.com/index.html
Dennie
Active Thermal Management http://www.activethermal.com/index.html
Dennie
Tom the issue I see with your plan is heat rises and your picture posted has the vent line at the top of the equipment rack then going down then sideways then up. Heat is going to find the easiest way upwards and so I see a problem forcing it down then sideways than up. Is there a way you can run the piping at a 45 degree angle from the top of the gear rack to the top right side of your cabinet before it vents into the attic. The cabinet itself will hide the piping and the fan doesn't have to be super powerful to vent the heat at an upward angle.
I see your point but, no. I'm not going to run the duct at crazy angles. In fact I'm thinking that I may just connect the duct so that it runs compley horizontally in the upper half of the lower cabinet. I already use the lower cabinets to run a bunch of wiring so the space is lost already and U use those middle-right cabinets for storage. That put the inlet lower than is ideal but I'm trying to keep it as simple and short as possible. Any forced exhaust should make a significant difference.
Eight posts ago.
In short I cant go straight out the back from the top of the cabinet. I'll need to drop the outlet about 2 feet. I'll also need to install an outlet to power the fan. Not un-doable.
In short I cant go straight out the back from the top of the cabinet. I'll need to drop the outlet about 2 feet. I'll also need to install an outlet to power the fan. Not un-doable.
Towen7 said:Most of the wall behind is brick. There is an attic space above the back patio behind the lower right half of the cabinets. The pitch of the patio roof makes it impossible to go straight out from the top of the cabinet. If I want to dump heat into that space, the duct would follow the same path but go straight back instead of up at the corner. The duct woud be shorter but a problem is I'd have to install an outlet for the fan in the patio attic. There is already one in the attic over the room.
The top of the rack is about 2 feet above where the roof meets the fourth stud (from the left) in this picture. The right corner of the room is about another 3 feet to the LEFT on this pic. The horizontal board is the floor sill.