Cooling Equip In enclosed cabinet (1 Viewer)

[maiqui18]

I have an enclosed Home Theater Cabinet and I’m concern with the heat being generated out of my receiver in that enclosed area. I was hoping somebody could recommend me a complete solution, with a description of parts to be purchased, that does not require an electrical engineering degree to implement. I am interested in cooling 4 A/V components:

Receiver, which does have 12V trigger zone (see picture below).
DVD
DVD/VCR Combo
HD Cable Box


I would like to have the following features:
1. 2 Extremely Quiet fans
I really don’t want to hear the fans at all.
2. Something that works automatic when I power up the receiver
3. Clean wiring and inconspicuous equipment (power supply)
4. Absolutely no distortion to A/V devices
5. Cost effective

Appreciate the help!

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/0/02/htf_imgcache_6749.jpeg] [/url]

 

[JohnRice]

One thing to point out is that in order to do any good, you can't just move air, but have to bring in cool air from outside the cabinet and exhaust the warm air.

Here is basically what I would do. Hopefully it is specific enough, but it is about as specific as I can give with the info you provide. Most if not all of it is available at Radio Shack. Get a power converter which plugs into a regular AC outlet and outputs 12v DC. If you get one with adjustable output voltage, it will let you adjust the speed of your fans to suit your needs. Get 2 DC brushless cooling fans, probably about 4". Figure out a way to wire the output from the power converter to the fans. A lot of the times, some 9 volt battery type connectors are the simplest. Just wire both the fans to one 9 volt connector and then the power converter to another 9 volt connector. Most likely it already has one. Plug the power converter into to a switched outlet on the receiver and you're good to go. Then you just need to set up the fans in such a way as to exhaust the hot air from the cabinet, with a cool air supply opening at the opposite end.

You just have to be sure the output capacity of the converter is at least as much as the draw of both the fans.

 

[maiqui18]

Thanks for the input.

Here is the fan I was looking at. Do you think the 33.5 CFM will be enough?

Specifications: Model: SFF21D. Dimensions: 120x120x25mm. Fan Speed: 800rpm. Fan Noise: 8.7dBA. Air Flow: 33.5CFM. Rated Current: 0.10A. Connector: 3-pin (4-pin adaptor included). Cable Length: 30cm. Bearing Type: S-FDB (Fluid Dynamic Bearing by SONY Corporation). MTBF: 150,000 hours. MTBF of normal ball bearing Fan: 50,000 hours. MTBF of nolmal sleeve bearing Fan: 20,000 hours.

http://www.directron.com/sff21d.html

 

[DBeistel]

Look at these fans.
middleatlantic.com/rackac/cooling/uqfp.htm[/url]

 

[maiqui18]

NICEEEE! Too rich for my blood though...$300+ for the entry model.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Another solution (which I dont have a link for) is a setup for about $150 that comes with 30 ft of flex pipe and a unit that looks like a hair dryer that goes in the other room. It blows cool air through the pipe into the bottom of your equipment closet which forces the hot air out the top (you do have openings at the top? Right).

This somewhat expensive solution is great because the fan is in the other room. The down side - a 4" plastic pipe intruding.

Another idea: Hit ebay/computer shows. I have seen small control panels that were designed to fit into a 5 1/2 drive bay on a computer CPU box.





It has dials that are fan controllers and even temperature displays. These are designed to control various fans in a computer case. I'm sure you could rig up and old CPU power supply, some fans and one of these controllers to make things work at a quiet level.

Be sure to get filters to cover the fans that can reduce the dust inside your rack:

 

[JohnRice]

Marcus, if you go the way I was recommmending (cheap) then that fan should do the trick. You don't have to move an enormous amount of air in most cases. You mainly need to let the hot air exhaust at the top.