Home Equipment Closet

[jeff.sadowski]

I'm getting a new house and plan on making one closet into an equipment closet. Where I will tuck a media/home server and other gear, like dvd player and stereo system etc. So I want good ventilation/cooling in the closet. I can't seem to figure out what to google for to find what I want.
I don't think it will need cooled enough to require its own air conditioning and I only saw fans that blew into another room. That was all I could find on google.

I'm thinking of just buying two 4 inch duct fans one blowing air in (placed in front of the equipment) and the other out (placed behind the equipment) of the closet. Then on the other side of the duct fans creating a 180 degree rotational device to swap the two 4 inch flexible ducts one duct to the outside the other duct to another room. That way in the summer it would be drawing air from the room and pushing the warmed air outside and in the winter it would pull air from outside and push the warmed air to the room. If the warmed air is too cold in the winter I would maybe draw air from the attic or garage. and have 3 flexible ducts 2 connected at any one time. All this would be hidden in my attic and for now a manual shifting of the air ducts.

Has anyone done anything like this? If so would you mind sharing how you cool your home equipment closet. Maybe even a picture or two of the cooling apparatus.

Any constructive input is welcome.

Thank You.

Update: found another forum with this topic

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=772637

[Fafler]

I have build my own 19" rack of plywood. Placed it next to my desk, holding PC's, switch, UPS and at some point audio equipment. I also made two rack cases, one for my home server and one for my gaming machine. If possible, build something you can get to from both sides.

Your cooling idea sounds pretty neat. I might look into doing something similar.

[tgalati4]

I wouldn't vent to the attic, unless you have a provision to keep critters out. A better method is simply add vents and fans to upper and lower portions of the closet door and simply exchange air with the rest of the house.

In the winter, you will gain extra BTU's that will stay in the house. In the summer the extra BTU's will need to pulled out via air conditioning, (at a rate of 1 watt of AC for every 4 watts of heat generated).

You can calculate the BTU's by using an on-line air conditioning calculator and measuring the delta temperature between the upper and lower louvers.

If you know the CFM of the fans (you can look them up as well) you simply multiply the delta enthalpy by the CFM to get BTU's/hour. 50 CFM for a small closet and low heat load, 200 CFM for a big closet and a stuffed rack of equipment.

Here's a calculator that I use to get enthalpy:

http://www.sugartech.co.za/psychro/index.php

Venting to the attic is OK in the spring and fall when you can open windows. For winter and summer, you're better off with a closed loop.

[pope_face]

Are you going to house all your equipment in a purpose-built rack, or are you just going to use shelves? And, if you're using shelves, will they be permanently mounted to the walls, or will you be using something more freestanding, ie: bookshelves/heavy duty storage shelving? You already know your big concern will be heat, so you're on the right track... Will this be on the top floor of a house, or is this a single-story house with an attic? You mentioned a garage and attic, so I'm going to assume it's a single-story house, with the closet adjacent to the garage...

Ideally, I think your intake would be from the garage, as the air there usually tends to be a bit cooler, assuming you're not running a dryer and hot water heater full blast in there during the summer. To get the coolest air, come in from as low as you can... this might present a problem though, as (assuming your equipment closet is on the ground floor) you may have concrete foundation walls between your house and garage. In any even, an air intake down low will give you the coolest air. As for exhaust, you want it as high as possible, as the warm air will naturally rise and get sucked out. Into the attic sounds good, but as was mentioned, you need a way to keep critters out. If you just want to circulate the air and don't have too much equipment, you might be able to get away with just spacing your gear out on the rack and keeping the top, bottom, sides, front, and back of each piece as clear as possible for air movement. If you've got a lot of high-heat generating equipment, you may have to do some ducting and try to force air past those components, but that will likely require additional fans and some way to "seal" the area around the component for best cooling.

As for some other tips that may work (most of it is just stuff that makes sense to me)... cable management (use cable sheaths) to reduce air resistance; opening your equipment up to the air (ie: take the covers off of amplifiers, assuming they're not acting as a heatsink); use a cheap computer power supply and case fans on equipment that needs extra airflow; aim for "negative pressure" airflow (a higher CFM exhaust fan than intake, it'll actually suck the air out rather than just push it around); putting hotter components near the top/closer to your exhaust fan; and finally: use an air filter (even off a furnace) on your intake!

Sorry for the rambling post, hope it helps...

As an aside, you may want to check out Silent PC Review (http://silentpcreview.com)... it's a website dedicated to cooling computers as quietly as possible, which ideally means passively, but usually amounts to using few fans with the best possible configuration. It may seem a bit off to suggest it, but a computer tower is essentially a mini version of your proposed equipment closet, so you could probably use a lot of the same concepts (which is actually where some of my suggestions come from). Check out the articles... Case Basics might be the key one for you. (And I am in no way affiliated with the site, I just find it useful.)

[tgalati4]

Holes into the garage might violate residential fire codes. Carbon monoxide could also get pulled into the house.

If raised foundation, you could pull in cooler air from under the house.

[Elfy]

Not a support request - moved to cafe

[mips]

I'm thinking of just buying two 4 inch duct fans one blowing air in (placed in front of the equipment) and the other out (placed behind the equipment) of the closet.

Would be better to blow from the bottom and extract at the top.

[grahammechanical]

I like the way you are thinking. And that you are taking a Do It Yourself approach. Think about how air conditioners, dehumidifiers, heat exchangers work. You might get some practical ideas there. Using hot air to evaporate water will cool the air. Usefull in summer. Refrigerators use heat to cool. Dehumidifiers use cold to extract dampness. I saw on a TV program that someone had the idea of putting internet servers on Iceland to save electricity on air conditioning by using the cold environment of Iceland to cool the server room.

Regards.

[barbedsaber]

liquid cooling. :cool: :lolflag: