howto add ventilation to AV cabinet? (1 Viewer)

[GuyS]

I removed the doors on my cabinet. That solved more than one problem I was having.

 

[Peter Jessee]

A fan that's silent at 9 volts? Tell the people at SilentPCReview.com about that one! Their most widely-accepted standard for quiet cooling is a Matsushita "Panaflo" (Panasonic) Model L1A 80mm fan running at 5 volts. I have three such fans in my computer's case right now. They are truly inaudible.

By inaudible, I mean that when I installed it on the back panel blowing into the cabinet, I couldn't hear it while standing in front of the cabinet. Probably is audible inside the cabinet, but I don't watch movies from in there.

I think I got lucky with that fan, though - the last one I bought at Fry's is much noisier. It's got some bearing noise that doesn't go away until the fan is so slow that it's not doing any cooling. I sold the first cabinet with the quiet fan so I can't check the manufacturer of it. Darn.

Peter

 

[BryantF]

there's always the commercial route (I know its a DIY forum)

Arthur_King:

Thanks for the link. Just wondering, have you bought any of their products? If so, what was your experience? Unfortunately they don't give much information (like price, noise output, etc), so it's hard to know what to expect.

I actually called them, and their System 3 (one of their most basic products) was over $100. That's more than I'm willing to spend for what basically amounts to an AC adapter connected to two fans.

When I called them, they also mentioned that www-dot-smarthome-dot-com sells their products. So far I haven't actually found them there, but I did come across something else which is interesting. They're called thermo cubes (smarthome-dot-com/7141-dot-html) and they are basically thermostats for a standard 120VAC electrical outlet.

Unfortunately they're not programmable -- each one has a preset on and off temperature. There is one model (7144) which turns on at 78°F and off at 70°F. Another model (7145) turns on at 120°F and off at 100°F. Those are the only two that activate when hot (rather than cold), and I'm afraid neither would be of much use for regulating temperature in an AV cabinet. Using the first one would be little different than having an "always on" fan, and I suspect the second one would always be off.

I don't really have a sense for what the typical temperature is inside an AV cabinet (I haven't put a thermometer in mine, although I think I'll try that soon to get a better idea). Can anybody offer a general idea of how hot is too hot? Is it possible that either of the thermo cube models would actually be useful?

Thanks,
Bryant

PS Apparently I'm too new to post URLs, so if somebody would post my URLs for me I'd appreciate it.

 

[Arthur_King]

Well, at the end of the day, if you want DIY, you go with X-10 home automation stuff.

For example, this in conjunction with some X10 equpipment and some fans would probably do ya. This seems even simpler, as it just closes a contact on high/low temp range. There's lots of stuff there at www.smarthome.com that would let you semi or fully automate your cooling issues.

Dont forget, you could just use a PC powersupply to run 12Vac case fans (depending on your noise sensitivity).

Daffy Arthur King
with the brain of a duck

 

[BryantF]

Arthur_King:

Thanks again for the links. I was hoping for something more affordable, but I may end up using one of those. As for the PC power supply, I still don't know how to trick it into behaving as if it's connected to a PC which is always on (the problem I mentioned in an earlier post).

 

[Gary Mui]

BryanF:

Why dont you do the mod that a few of us were talking about? Get a 12V AC Adaptor, plug it into the back of your receiver, connect it to a couple of 80mm computer case fans, and put those fans above your receiver. You can adjust the voltage, so the fans run even slower.

I have 2 80mm fans on top of my receiver (which is on the top shelf of the AV cabinet). Each fan is propped up at about a 45* angle (via a couple of bent paperclips), so that it sucks up the hot air through the top of the receiver, and directs it out the back of the cabinet.

That's as cheap as you can get! Inaudible from the listening area. Only barely audible if I walk up to the cabinet and open the glass door.

 

[Chris Hovanic]

I have a question about using a computer power supply. In a computer, the fans are only powered when the machine is on. So a computer power supply won't work in my AV cabinet unless I convince it that its "imaginary" computer is turned on. I was wondering if anybody knows how to "trick" the power supply into thinking it is connected to a computer which is always on. My guess is that I simply need to splice together a couple of wires, but I don't know which ones. Does anyone know how to do this?

http://forums.thatcomputerguy.us/ind...showtopic=1120