So my latest project in the theater actually started last October... I bought all of the materials and put some holes in the side of my house... Then I did nothing with it until last weekend and then finished up phase 1 tonight.

In my theater it gets warm pretty easy if we don't start the room like an icebox before hand. Not hard in summer if we crank the A/C and freeze out the whole house, but it could be better, and with the theater in the basement, it is well insulated in winter and tends to get actually warmer faster with just 3-4 people, let alone if there are other people over. With no A/C in winter, it is just really uncomfortable.

So I could go with a $1500 ductless A/C unit, but those are ugly and pricey. So are second A/C units (that actually can work in winter). So I went a touch old-school.

I basically now can suck in outside air into the home theater and blow it straight out of the front false wall.

So now in winter, I can turn on the blower and blow below freezing air right into the room to chill it quickly.

I basically have the following starting from the outside:
Exterior Vent (in a hole in the side of the house)
Flexible Insulated Duct (about 6 feet of it)
A Back Draft Damper (that shuts when the blower isn't on)
A DIY filter box that holds a 10" x 20" HVAC filter
Flexible Insulated Duct (about 2 feet)
Panasonic FV-20NLF1 WhisperLine 240 CFM In-Line Fan
Flexible Insulated Duct (about 11 feet)
A 4" x 12" HVAC Boot With Built In Hangers (to attach it in place)
A 4" x 12" Vent Cover (painted black, and I removed the sliding part that allows you to open/close it since it won't be needed.

It is installed on a shelf with the filter box and blower both up on rubber vibration dampening "feet". The shelf also has dampening material between the brackets and the shelf.
I put a front piece of shelving on it to box it in like a soffit, but am using friction and industrial Velcro to hold it in place in case I need to do anything with it. I also stuffed both ends with insulation to keep sound in.

It is pretty quiet, and during most movies you would never hear it at full speed, but I wanted to be able to control it and make it quieter if need be. So I picked up a 3-speed fan controller. You know, the "old school" dial type that has Off, Low, Med, High... Cost me $12, plus a box and faceplate for safety. I added that tonight and currently have it set on Medium. When playing even soft music at a low level, you can't hear the blower at all. This is attached to the side of the blower, so to change it I will have to take down the screen and the front face of the "soffit" to adjust it, but it should be a "Set it and forget it" type of thing.

I also added a remote controlled (RF) power outlet, so I can turn it on/off without having a physical switch visible. That works slick. I wish that it was IR so that I could use it with my Harmony One, but this won't get used THAT much, so for those few times it will be fine to have a separate remote.

So that is Phase 1.

Phase 2 is to run a new "fresh air" (passive this time) duct to my furnace room so that I can do Phase 3.

Phase 3 is to take the ducting from the current passive "fresh air supply" for the furnace room and turn it into an air return in the back of the home theater. Right now I have a really REALLY large computer fan up in a hole in the ceiling just blowing air up, along the gap between the joists/basement ceiling/upstairs floor over to the furnace room. I would rather have an actual air return so that in summer I can pull warm air out with the A/C pumping in. As it currently exists, the fan isn't a whole lot better (but it is better) than when I had nothing to relieve incoming air pressure.

Phase 4 (and I hope that I don't need to do this) would be to install an "exhaust duct" that blows air outdoors from the room (opposite of what I did for phase 1. My fear is that if I pump in a lot of outside air I will end up with positive pressure elsewhere in the house and just make everything "wonky."

Anyway, here are some pictures.

Here is a picture in the midst of the project. Nice and messy. You can see my DIY filter box up on the shelf.


Everything tidy and put away. I might add some acoustically absorptive material to this new "soffit" but have to see how the audio sounds first to see if it needs it.


Back to normal:

Farewell - June 4, 2020