Hi. I have all my audio-video gear installed in a cabinet, part of a long run of what are really kitchen base cabinets. Works great.
Except, all that gear, of course, generates a lot of heat. I know the standard solution for this is a fan, but the problem is that a fan won’t help as there really is nowhere to mount it that would allow me to exhaust the warm air. The cabinet is mounted to a wall with a shower behind it, has a refrigerator on one side, another closed-door cabinet on the other. Marble on top. Toe kick is a possible fan location, but since heat rises its the least efficient place to mount the fan. And with the doors closed I have my doubts.
What I really need is a simple device that would push the cabinet doors open a bit whenever the A/V gear turns on (alternatively, wired to a thermostat that would open at a set temperature). Then I could add a fan if convection cooling wasn’t enough. if I can’t open the door I’d just be blowing hot air around in the cabinet and because of the fan motor actually generating even more heat. Right now I do it manually, but someday someone else in the house will forget to do that and fry the expensive gear.
Any thoughts on this? Ever seen one, built one?
Carlos
Replies
Maybe a suggestion.
Install a duct to the top area inside the cabinet with a fan sucking into the duct exhausting out via the toekick. Place an air vent/inlet in the other side of the cabinet also terminating in the toekick.
Cool air enters via the vent and is exhausted via the duct.
You might find what you need in home automation suppliers. For instance, http://www.smarthome.com/_/ProductResults.aspx?Ntt=drapes is a page of operators for drapes, operated by a remote. You could probably use something like this to open your door. It could be triggered by one of those current-sensing devices intended for tool-triggering your shop vac, except that your A/V equipment would be plugged into it.
Exhaust the heat out the back, and turn the shower into a sauna? ;-)
The problem I suspect with most heat- or current-activated opening devices will be the assumed static position - i.e. otherwise closed. I think (but don't know) that you'd need to mount any of these on some sort of friction track that would allow you to open the doors for normal access, with more than the normal effort, but would provide enough friction for the automated device to work against.
Another thought would be some sort of heat pump, but that would mean circulating heat-transfer liquid in piping above the electronics. Perhaps not such a good idea.
It might be easier in the long run to modify the doors to allow for adequate ventilation when in the closed position, augmented, perhaps, with an intake fan in the toe-kick area.
I think I may have found a way to do this. Googled "Actuators" and found a number of 12 volt devices with a throw (depending on model) sufficient to push my doors ajar, about a 4" throw. Provide a 12v current and the actuator extends. Reverse the polarity and the actuator retracts. Have to play with a relay this weekend and see if I can use one to make the polarity reverse, but it looks like it should do exactly what I wanted.
I have found actuators at
http://www.firgelliauto.com/
It may still need a fan to keep temperatures in the desired range, but at least this way there is a place to exhaust the warm air.
FYI -- modifying the cabinet doors is not an option given the finish.
Don't all of these actuators work on the basis of a fixed starting point (i.e. closed), however? If so, I think the trick is still in being able to fully open the doors conveniently when you want to.
I think the starting point for the actuator is whatever state the last voltage applied to it left it in. I hope to set it up so that 12v triggered off the switched outlet on the receiver extends it. (It will also have to have a source of unswitched 12v to retract the actuator)
Extending it won't be anything fancy, simply the actuator rod with a broad enough cap on it to push in the center of two hinged doors. When the system is OFF the rod is fully retracted and you can open and close the doors manually. When the system is ON the rod pushes out in the center of the doors. You can manually open the doors fully if desired, but you can only close them to the point where they engage the actuator rod.
In theory of course.
Pushing against, rather than being afixed to the doors solves that problem.Another option you might look into are the actuators used for greenhouse vents. They open when it's too hot inside the greenhouse, and retract when it cools off.
Good suggestion, thx
If you have typical frame and panel doors, the simplest solution is to take out the center panels, and replace them with a woven panel. Either grass cloth, rattan, or the speaker grill cloth.
This was done a lot in mid century stuff, as the tube, (as opposed to transistor), driven equipment available from WW-II to the mid sixties generated huge amounts of heat.
Try looking a some mid century design books for ideas.
That would be easiest, but these are solid doors iwth a black laquer finish
I agree with Jigs-n-fixtures; use the KISS method. Redesign the doors with an attractive grill
ensemble. Why complicate the system.
I agree with the keep it simple approach. But aesthetics matter as well. In this case I have about 15' of cabinets in a black laquer finish that look unified. My version of the KISS approach is a simple on-/off device that nudges (rather than, say, a gear driven opener for the doors) the doors open when necessary and lets them close under their own spring driven hinge-power otherwise.
Carlos
Carlos, another possible simple solution would be to route out a relief in the back side of the doors at top and bottom, so there is always a 1/4-inch gap. No additional moving parts. And, to the casual abserver you would still have the balck laquer front you want to maintain.
Or just route a pattern of slots into the faces of the doors, paint the slots with a semigloss balck paint, and put the cloth on the back side. Quite a few design possibilties.
The least complicated, of the more complicated solutions is just a solenoid that would bump the bottoms of the doors out. Pretty easy to wire up.
Second choice would be something similar to the rear window motors from a Chrysler Corp mini van. The actuator arm rotates through an 180-degree arc and then stops, opening the window about two inches. Depending on how much of the actuator arm is left, you could adjust the amount of opening. Again not too hard to wire up with a relay.
Third choice would be some form of cooling system. Wet tubes attached to the heat sinks on the amps might work. Or a water to air heat exchanger system. You have a shower on the opposite side of the wall, so you have a water source and a drain nearby. You could just interlace the heat sinks with pex, and a thermostatic valve, so when the amps heat up the water flows, and cools them down, the higher the heat, the more flow the valve would allow. I've cooled large hydrauilc systems, in this manner.
Remember when you are thinking this through: There is an old rule of thumb, that the probablilty of failure of any system is a cubic function of the number of parts. The other big source of systems failure is operator error. Keep the parts to a minimum, and minimize the human factor. Remember that the heat is there for long after the system is shut down, and it needs to disipate before the cooling provision can be deactivated.
I still think the best solution is some form of grill or cloth for the centers of the doors. You might have to treat all the doors to make it look right, but it is still the best of the available solutions.
You do have to make your own choice, good luck.
Thanks, I'm going to play with a relay in the next few days to see if I can make this work. While a vented front would be the least complicated solution, SWMBO will not accept it. Either a solenoid or actuator willwork. Actually intriqued with the rear window control from a min-van. I suspect that relies on an actuator
Carlos
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