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Cooling Help in a Closet Equipment Room

1) I need cooling solution/suggestions.

2) Some way to make my rack swivel, or get a new one.

Well, one solution down, (move equipment to a dedicated room) and two to go. I am having an electrician wire the room in 2 weeks, which leaves me this amount of time to decide how best to cool the room. With just 5 pieces of gear in a 10 x 8 x 3 room (closet really) and NO VENTILATION now, one would not consider this a problem since this room is usually much cooler than the rest of the house. The associated gear, California Audio Labs CL-2500 series of equipment (4 items) and the Monster AVS-2000/5100.
The amp is fine in stand by, but the processor is too hot to touch, even in standby. Now granted, I have it sitting IN a Salamander rack and can move it to the top, I think I am going to move the amp to the top, and yes, I will need t have a custom top made to hold the depth of the Cal amp, leaving the SSP below. I will remove the sides of the rack and have no back to it. I can get great spacing since I have an S20 and S30 on top of each other, and may also use the S40 in there somehow. So spacing will not be an issue for ventilation.

Now, this sight, www.activethermal.com I pulled from other threads that talk about cooling a closet, but it is a fan that sucks hot air out of the room (which I can install) and have the hot air vent out of the closet to the outdoors, seems easy enough. Now, since the Cal gear runs warmer than most gear (due to the Class "A" circuity?) I would like to cool the room if possible/necessary. a) If cooling, what would one suggest, b) if not cooling, but moving air, would a fan(s) be fine?

My other question is since the closet is about 3ft wide, is there such a think like a large LAZY SUSAN I can put under the rack to make it swivel (cable and equipment swaps) and if so, where would one find such a thing? IF NOT, suggestions for a rack that does swivel?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dan
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12 responses Add your response
mzn50
180 posts
 
I made a hole in the attic and fed a dryer hose through the closet on top of the rack, the other end I shoved it in the furnace air return in one of the rooms air return.

The hot Air in the closet is sucked automatically out of the closet by the furnace.. works well as I have my furnace on low speed continually..

http://members.rogers.com/mzn50/
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Thats the truth and could be a real issue.
ksales
228 posts
 
Make sure the exhaust fan is quiet. Not all are created equal.
gs5556
1,233 posts
 
An exhaust fan will work good, especially if the room where the closet is adjacent to is air conditioned. For the 240 cu ft closet, I would suggest a fan/light ventilator with a 120 cfm capacity. Mount the unit in the ceiling, run 3-inch flex aluminum from the fan to an exterior wall or roof jack.

You don't need to louver the doors - a 1-inch undercut (2-inches is better assuming a 28-inch door) will infiltrate the makeup air. This will effectively cool the closet, not to living room comfort but enough to keep your equipment from tripping on high heat overload.

You do not want to bring in outside air as the makeup - too much humidity in the summer. The interior 70 to 75 degree air is adequate.

Look into www.grainger.com for "bathroom ventilators", made by Broan. It's a start - and the cheapest way to go. Good luck.
jadem6's avatar
jadem6
1,074 posts
 
If you have forced air, I've designed a number of home theater rooms that I put a return air louver in the equipment closet. This would require a louvered door. Swampwalker has a good idea if you have hot water or steam heat.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Can you change the door to a louvered door (could actually be a half-louvered door, lower half) and then put in a small exhaust fan mounted high (hot air rises) behind a dryer type vent? You could use one of those wood stove circulating fans or a dedicated exhaust fan- wait a minute how about a combined light/exhaust like you would use in a shower and that vents thru the ceiling in a flexible duct to a hinged vent cover. Plumbers put them in every day; just snake it the short distance thru the ceiling to the outside wall.
john_l
782 posts
 
Buy one of those stand alone ac units at frys!
jameswei
883 posts
 
When I put in a new bedroom, the builder tried to convince me that an air "return" duct wouldn't be necessary if I had a half inch gap under the door. He said it was common practice for small bedrooms, bathrooms, and large closets. Since this wasn't a particularly small bedroom, I insisted on a return duct anyhow, but a door gap could work pretty well as a ventilation intake for a closet.

There are all sorts of exterior vent caps for kitchen stove exhausts, bathroom fans, and clothes dryer exhausts. Many of them are designed with a spring loaded trap door that opens when the fan blows air onto it. Some also have special shapes with turns that act as traps for foreign material. They also have screens to prevent insects and pests from getting in.
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porschecab OP
336 posts
 
Slipknot1,

It is sounding like I will head to a large LAZY SUSAN (about $8) and will bolt it to a piece of wood which will sit on the carpet, and the other side will bolt to the bottom of the Salamander rack. This seems like a very inexpensive solution. I need to do some more research yet.

Now, cooling. It sounds like I have a couple of options.
One, I need some type of heat release to the outside, no matter what. I need to find something that will suck the hot air out (mounted high, right?) but needs to prevent dust/dirt etc from coming inside. I need to figure out if I can VENT into the closet from the living quarters, down low in the closet) which will carry air from inside the living room, up through the equipment, and out the hot air release thing. I am concerned that I will not be able to let air INTO the closet without it looking horrible with some type of 'vent' which would force me to go to fans that push air, but not cool.

Am I seeing this correctly?

Dan
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porschecab OP
336 posts
 
Thanks Jameswei!

I will check out the cooling system route, but was hoping not to put an A/C unit in my closet. I was hoping MOVING air is sufficient, but if not, I will check out cooling/A/C.
Any idea on cost of such a thing?

I think the only way a rack would work in the closet is with a LAZY SUSAN type of thing UNDER the Salamander rack.
Some of the ones I have seen only handle 250lbs. I think a LazySusan that can handle more than 250lbs and can go on carpet (though I can have a piece of wood cut to set on the carpet, the LazySusan on top of that, then the cabinet on top of that!! I think this would work, but unsure.

My thought for cooling was a hot air exhaust, yes, with fans cooling and circulating the air.....

Would this suffice?

Dan
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
Avrak makes a nice selection of racks that not only rotate, but pull out on tracks as well, making it very easy to service equipment. www.avrack.com

A couple of quiet muffin fans located on the back wall of the gear closet along with some louvers located near the top of the door can go a long way toward venting the warm air out of the closet.
jameswei
883 posts
 
If you're willing to put a hot air exhaust in the closet, consider cooling systems developed for wine cellars. You can buy enclosureless cooling apparatus for closet installation. There's a pretty good selection as this seems to be a well developed niche market. The key will be whether the cooling system can handle the amount of heat from hot equipment (versus ambient heat in a typical basement cellar).

Standesign makes a retractable pivoting rack system for closet or in-wall installation of A/V gear. You can read about it on their web site at www.standesign.com. Click into the products and pull up "BCM". Good luck.
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