Need suggestions for getting the heat out

[McQualude]

I have a P4 2.53Ghz machine that is quite the space heater. The heat was
welcome during the winter but not now when it's 90 degrees outside. The
computer is in our family room where we hang out a lot and watch tv.

My thought was to build a PVC exhaust system that would attach to the back
of the PC and allow the hot air exhaust to be vented into the attic.

Any other ideas on what to do with the heat? Anyone tried this, or thought
about trying this?

 

[Stacey]

I have a P4 2.53Ghz machine that is quite the space heater. The heat was
welcome during the winter but not now when it's 90 degrees outside. The
computer is in our family room where we hang out a lot and watch tv.

My thought was to build a PVC exhaust system that would attach to the back
of the PC and allow the hot air exhaust to be vented into the attic.

You'd need to use a really big pipe to make sure you can flow enough air.
Might even need a "pull" fan on the other end?

 

[Panos Papadopolous]

I have a P4 2.53Ghz machine that is quite the space heater. The heat was
welcome during the winter but not now when it's 90 degrees outside. The
computer is in our family room where we hang out a lot and watch tv.

My thought was to build a PVC exhaust system that would attach to the back
of the PC and allow the hot air exhaust to be vented into the attic.

Any other ideas on what to do with the heat? Anyone tried this, or thought
about trying this?

Can we can safely assume that your family room is not air-conditioned?

Are any rooms in your house air-conditioned?

Where is your family room located in the house?

Is it just a screened-in enclosure?

When it is 90F outside in the summer, how do you manage without AC in your
house?

We couldn't get along without it here in hot, humid, sunny Florida, the
sunshine state.

 

[Daniel P]

Well here is a less eXtreme method. Cut a blow hole in the top and put in a high proformance 80mm or 120mm fan. You (hopefully) know that heat rises and if you put a fan on top it lets the heat out. Also you can put and fan on you the side of you case blowing air away from your cpu.

Here's a pic of the major heat spots in a comp.
http://tinyurl.com/23crh
THIS PAGE WILL ONLY STAY UP FOR 7 DAYS

Also here's a way to make your hard drive cool
http://www.twistedmods.com/article.php?artid=230

 

[McQualude]

Well here is a less eXtreme method. Cut a blow hole in the top and
put in a high proformance 80mm or 120mm fan. You (hopefully) know
that heat rises and if you put a fan on top it lets the heat out.
Also you can put and fan on you the side of you case blowing air
away from your cpu.

The heat output remains the same regardless of how many fans you use. I am
not trying to reduce the temperature inside the case I am trying to reduce
the temperature inside the room.

 

[McQualude]

Can we can safely assume that your family room is not
air-conditioned?

Are any rooms in your house air-conditioned?

Where is your family room located in the house?

Is it just a screened-in enclosure?

When it is 90F outside in the summer, how do you manage without AC in
your house?

We couldn't get along without it here in hot, humid, sunny Florida,
the sunshine state.

What do these questions have to do with venting the heat to the
exterior? Dryers are vented to the exterior regardless of air
conditioning.

To humor you, here is the situation: The family room was once a garage.
The wall it shares with the house was once an exterior wall and is
insulated. There is one air duct that provides conditioned air to the
room, adding additional ducts is cost prohibitive at this time. The room
is comfortable and is at equilibrium with the house when the computer is
off. When the computer is on it generates heat that is vented to the
room and gradually rises the temperature until it is less comfortable
than the rest of the house.

Adding case fans does not reduce the heat output of the computer it only
replaces the air inside the case quicker, reducing temperatures inside
the case.

Yes I could increase the A/C but that would over chill the rest of the
house just to compensate for the PC in one room.

The 2.53GHZ P4 is significantly cooler than the 1.4GHZ Thunderbird I
owned previously, but CPUs of this speed create a considerable amount of
heat.

 

[Alex]

In that case the best option would be turn the pc off if you think it's
making that much of a difference to your room temp. I really can't see how
it's affecting it that much.

 

[Allen_L]

In

The heat output remains the same regardless of how many fans you use.
I am not trying to reduce the temperature inside the case I am trying
to reduce the temperature inside the room.

You need to call a Central AC installer, or put in a AC window unit...your
computer is doing what it does, put out heat from use. Heat in the room is
probably unbearable even without the computer if it's 90 degrees outside,
it's probably over that inside due to body heat.

....Allen

 

[McQualude]

In that case the best option would be turn the pc off if you think
it's making that much of a difference to your room temp. I really
can't see how it's affecting it that much.

I don't think, I know. Familiarize yourself with modern CPUs and their
heat output then read up on thermodynamics.

 

[Daniel P]

Then get an Air Conditioner or Swap Cooling. I mean its already 100 degrees
out side where I live and it with my swap cooler on low my room temp is
fairly low (mean not playing any hardcore games). If you have AC or Swap
Cooling then use the air flow open the door, open windows. It helps the air
flow out of your house then it helps pull cooled air through the room again.

Or just shutdown your comp while not in use.

 

[Dave]

Strange that no one was able to answer the question you asked, so I'll give
it a shot. Venting the heat to the attic can be a worthwhile solution,
however, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

1. Don't use PVC. The air flowing through plastic generates static, which,
with enough dust build-up, can cause a fire. This is especially true in
other areas, like workshops, where a central unit removes the sawdust from
wood-working tools. The chance of a fire is probably small, but static
isn't nice to have around computers anyway. Metal ducting is a better
solution.

2. There is a certain resistance per foot of tubing, which is inversely
proportional to the diameter. Go to the construction store and get a long
coil of the widest diameter drier-like venting you can use in your space.
Build a shroud, if possible, around the exhaust fan for the case and the
exhaust for the power supply, the later is a non negligible source of heat.

3. Use an additional large fan in the attic to help pull the hot air
through.
Moreover, don't have too many fans pulling/pushing air into the computer
because if you build up pressure inside the computer, the hot air will get
blown back out into your room unless the case is airtight. You want the air
pressure to be less inside of the computer case than it is in the room.

3. Consider water cooling or a combination of water and air. Water will be
considerably more efficient at transferring the heat to your attic, where
you can have a radiator and fan combo. You could have a water block on your
processor, with air pulling the rest if you would like. You could need a
pretty mighty pump, though, depending on the height of your attic.

Good luck and hope your project is fun,

Dave

 

[Moderately Confused]

What do these questions have to do with venting the heat to the
exterior? Dryers are vented to the exterior regardless of air
conditioning.

To humor you, here is the situation: The family room was once a garage.
The wall it shares with the house was once an exterior wall and is
insulated. There is one air duct that provides conditioned air to the
room, adding additional ducts is cost prohibitive at this time. The room
is comfortable and is at equilibrium with the house when the computer is
off. When the computer is on it generates heat that is vented to the
room and gradually rises the temperature until it is less comfortable
than the rest of the house.

Adding case fans does not reduce the heat output of the computer it only
replaces the air inside the case quicker, reducing temperatures inside
the case.

Yes I could increase the A/C but that would over chill the rest of the
house just to compensate for the PC in one room.

The 2.53GHZ P4 is significantly cooler than the 1.4GHZ Thunderbird I
owned previously, but CPUs of this speed create a considerable amount of
heat.

Ok, I think I have an idea, but it's kind of out there. I'm thinking of a
flow through system, where the case is completely sealed except for the
intake and exhaust. If the heat is as bad as you say it is, I would put a
vent made of dryer venting tube through the exterior wall, with an exhaust
fan near the outside that pulls air through the case, taking the hot air
directly outside. You could even cap the end of the exhaust with one of
those dryer flappy endcap things.

Here is my rendering of the whole project

http://members.tripod.com/Trains99/gram.jpg

And if you get an exhaust fan that pulls enough air, you could even
eliminate case fans. If you do this, let me know, and I would also suggest
insulating the dryer vent tube, so that you wouldn't be re-cooling the air
being vented outside.

Extreme, I know, but you only live once.

MC

 

[Stacey]

Moderately Confused wrote:

Here is my rendering of the whole project

http://members.tripod.com/Trains99/gram.jpg

And if you get an exhaust fan that pulls enough air, you could even
eliminate case fans. If you do this, let me know, and I would also
suggest insulating the dryer vent tube, so that you wouldn't be re-cooling
the air being vented outside.

Also I'd make the tube go -up- rather then down to take advantge of
convection, it's a powerful tool to use!

 

[Moderately Confused]

Moderately Confused wrote:



Also I'd make the tube go -up- rather then down to take advantge of
convection, it's a powerful tool to use!

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, I just pictured the dryer vent outside my
house, and it's near the ground. I was also thinking of asthetics (sp?).
It would be much easier to hide a tube behind a desk than something up near
the ceiling. Also, with a fan like this:
http://www.atrendyhome.com/inlineductfan.html ( comes in sizes from 4 to 12
inches ) convection wouldn't really matter.

MC

 

[Don Taylor]

3. Consider water cooling or a combination of water and air. Water will be
considerably more efficient at transferring the heat to your attic, where
you can have a radiator and fan combo. You could have a water block on your
processor, with air pulling the rest if you would like. You could need a
pretty mighty pump, though, depending on the height of your attic.

I started wondering about evaporative cooling recently. Perhaps
spray a fine mist of water into air being sucked into the heatsink
fins. Presumably the water would quickly collect on the fins and
then evaporate. Evaporation consumes a great deal of heat. Then
then slightly more humid air would be sucked right out of the heat
sink and out the exit. I suppose we would have to watch out for
mineral deposits building up on the heat sink. I suspect that the
evaporation of a modest amount of water would remove the same amount
of heat that raising air temperature from 25C to 50C would. But I
don't have my old thermodynamics text anymore, to check this.

Good luck and hope your project is fun,

I can see it now, big chrome reactor-style cooling towers with steam
clouds drifting off the top, flanking your computer, just to keep the
temperature down.

 

[Charles]

You need to determine where the heat is coming from. Many computers
have a power supply that is just too hot. Make sure the power supply
actually can run cool without a load. Might try buying a new power
supply. You can not change the heat that the computer is giving off,
short of using different hardware.

One way to make it cooler might be a ceiling fan.

In server rooms they sometimes use extra air conditioning. However,
one thing with air conditioning is sometimes the hot air is not being
pulled out of room via a return air vent.

I wonder how well the roof is insulated. Often the ceiling does not
have sufficient insulation and the attic is not venting the hot air.

A monitor also uses lots of electricity and puts off heat. Maybe a
LCD monitor might help. Turn off the monitor when not in use.

 

[Guest]

I have a P4 2.53Ghz machine that is quite the space heater.

My thought was to build a PVC exhaust system that would
attach to the back of the PC and allow the hot air exhaust
to be vented into the attic.

There is one air duct that provides conditioned air to the
room, adding additional ducts is cost prohibitive at this
time. The room is comfortable and is at equilibrium with
the house when the computer is off.

Yes I could increase the A/C but that would over chill the
rest of the house just to compensate for the PC in one room.

I wouldn't do this with a duct less than 6" in diameter or else the
resistance to air flow could make the computer run hot, and even that
may be too small. Flex duct also resists air flow much worse than
smooth duct (rigid PVC or metal). Another problem is that the duct
will introduce a bad air leak in the house and may possibly increase
your cooling costs (hot air may rise, but air has to come in from the
outside for that to happen.

You didn't mention a return A/C duct, and that can help greatly. To
see how much, keep the door to the room open 2", and if that helps,
consider installing a return duct by yourself, which isn't difficult
or costly, especially since it doesn't have to connect directly into
the A/C ducting but just into a room with a return duct already in it.
Return ducts can save on cooling costs by keeping the rooms more
equal in temperature and by preventing air from leaking out the house.

 

[Alex]

Considering I'm running a 2500 barton @ 2300MHz etc I know much heat a
processor generates. I've got a small room here and the whole system maybe
increases room temp by one degree. I don't use air con, and rarely have the
windows open ....

 

[McQualude]

(e-mail address removed) (do_not_spam_me) said:

You didn't mention a return A/C duct, and that can help greatly. To
see how much, keep the door to the room open 2", and if that helps,
consider installing a return duct by yourself, which isn't difficult
or costly, especially since it doesn't have to connect directly into
the A/C ducting but just into a room with a return duct already in it.
Return ducts can save on cooling costs by keeping the rooms more
equal in temperature and by preventing air from leaking out the house.

Good tip, thanks.

 

[McQualude]

In server rooms they sometimes use extra air conditioning. However,
one thing with air conditioning is sometimes the hot air is not being
pulled out of room via a return air vent.

good tip, thanks.

I wonder how well the roof is insulated. Often the ceiling does not
have sufficient insulation and the attic is not venting the hot air.

We just added insulation to the attic which was grossly underinsulated.
The attic now has 8" of insulation per code for our area. Previously there
was only about 2" up there. The previous homeowner spent tens of thousands
renovating this house but never insulated, go figure.