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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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jameswei
795 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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porschecab OP
335 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.
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porschecab OP
335 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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