Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Cooling My A/V Closet

I'm really enjoying having everything out of the way in my new A/V closet, but at the same time, it appears the room is turning into a private sauna for my equipment. With the door open, I hear my PS3 raging while playing, but the equipment at least gets some cooler air circulated in... while the door is closed, I can't hear the equipment, but the room bakes.

There is unfortunately not ventilation to the closet, so short of cutting and running another A/C duct into the little closet (4x3x9), does anyone have any ideas for dealing with the heat build up?

Thanks folks.

Jason

Hmmm... some discussion in this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=772637

I don't know if their are any solid answers in there though.

Is there an attic above your closet? perhaps you can install a small attic fan in the ceiling.

The only thing I can think of is a cooling fan(s) mounted somewhere to either move air around the equipment or out of the room and preferably both, possibly one mounted in the ceiling of the room to suck the air out of the room and through the attic, like a bathroom fan. I guess a fan could just be mounted above the doorway and push the air into the other room. Maybe modifying a PC water cooling kit to run around the rack?

The vent fan into the attic is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. It's a bit more construction than I want to do, but I may have to give in at some point and do it. I think I once saw some custom doors that had an input/output vent fan built into it (that looked decent too). If I find that I'll post a link here... I remember it being $$$.

Just get a keyhole saw and cut a hole in the ceiling, and install a ceiling bathroom fan... prolly need someone to do the wiring though (unless your closet has a light up at the top you could prolly rig it up to the light switch-

you could even try to install some type of vent in the wall to help circulate air:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=14549-835-531025&lpage=none

just depneds on how much $ and how much work you want to put into it.

For anyone interested... this was what I was thinking of... it's not a full door, just a louvered vent that you put into your existing door... For $250, I'm leaning towards the fan option.

http://www.rackmounts.com/asp/show_detail.asp?sku=DF3466&PiID=1969885&refid=FR105-DF3466_1969885

Thanks terzaghi... researching now. A wall vent looks like a good option. I will probably have to get some help with the electrical because the light in the ceiling is at a place where I couldn't get into the attic from above to finish the installation. Fortunately, the closet also backs directly to another attic space so cutting a hole there and venting to that attic should be rather simple other than doing the wiring.

I've been wanting to get a power cord run to that attic anyway for lighting in the attic, so now I can have a couple of things done at once.

Like Jakewash said, I think some type of vent to get room into the air along with some type of attic fan would be the best combination.

Maybe your closet backs up to another room that you could put the wall vent on so that you don't hear your components whil ein the theater room?

The photo above is a quick shot of the soundbooth I built a few years ago.

I cut three holes in a solid core door, one for a double-pane "window" I created and two for vents that I picked up at Home Depot. The idea is that if the soundbooth gets warm, hotter air can escape through the upper vent, naturally pulling in the cooler air from the bottom vent. I bought some white magnetic sheets from a hobby store and cut them to size to block the vents when they're not needed. They just hold themselves to the metal vents when placed.

In your case, I could see doing something similar for your equipment closet. A window would allow the equipment to be seen if you wish, as well as allow IR remote use. A vent on the bottom that would draw air in from a quiet bathroom fan in the ceiling would work very well. The switch, of course, could be mounted outside the closet or the fan could be temp controlled to power on when the temp reaches a certain point.

I would probably add a fan within the closet to circulate air. This way, you would not have to worry about whether or not the "air path" from the bottom vent to the upper fan is exactly in-line with the heat-generating eqpt..... the air with would be gently circulated while moving through the closet bottom-to-top.

Jason, you wouldn't want to vent directly into the attic unless you are in a warm area in the world otherwise the condensation(warm and cold air mixing creates the condensation) build up would destroy the roof. The fan would have to be vented outside like bathroom fans usually are.