Heat Extraction suggestions..

[wayne1976]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right forum to be posting this in.

I have an understairs cupboard which i've converted to house all of my A/V equipment. Its currently houses my Tivo box, PS3 and a wifi router.

Once finished it will house all of the above + a 24 port switch, NAS Drive, Media server, a Wii and IR/video sender.

Once the equipment is in i will need to expel the heat as im sure it will get quite toasty in there if all the devices are on, so im looking for some kind of thermostatic controlled extractor which is suitable for the job and quiet.

Can i use a standard bathroom/kitchen extractor or is there a dedicated system for this purpose. The back wall goes through to the garage so knocking a hole through for a vent shouldn't be that much of an issue. if anyone has a similar setup Any suggestions/advise would be appreciated.

 

[EFLImpudence]

You should not knock a hole between the house and the garage.

Would not a vent at the top of the cupboard and one at the bottom, so that cool air drawn in passes the equipment, be sufficient?

 

[wayne1976]

The door to the cupboard is flush in the wall that faces into the living room and has my TV & soundbard attached, i would like to keep that wall as clean as possible so thought the best place to vent would be the garage?

 

[EFLImpudence]

You should not knock a hole between the house and the garage.

I was thinking that it would breach the Buildings Regulations but perhaps I'm wrong.
Some houses have a door to the garage, don't they?

Anybody else know?

Vent in the floor, if boards?

 

[Aragorn84]

I'd suggest using a quality inline duct fan if you want an extractor, the bathroom type dont tend to last that long if being run for long periods.

That said, before you do anything i'd give it a try with no cooling, or perhaps just a couple of slat vents on the door. Depends how big and how insulated the cupboard is too.

Fans are noisey, and you dont really want a constant whirr intruding on your lounge, if you did end up using one and found it was acceptable to bore thru the wall, i'd probably mount the fan out in the garage, and just run the duct thru, to try and keep the noise away.

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[Aragorn84]

Its not going to create fire risk levels of heat the stuff would break long before that. But should the ambient temperature get upto around 30-40c the components would start to fail.

 

[Alarm]

Had similar with DVR`s and PSU`s crammed into a cupboard.

I purchased some "silent run" 12vdc fans and put then at the top and bottom of the cupboard, the bottom to "suck" and the top to "blow" and this kept the temp down sufficiently.
You can hardly hear them running.
A nice decorative grill over the cut outs will keep it looking good.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Have a diverter in the ducting - in cold weather it would be crazy to throw away heat which you'd paid for.