AshMania Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 I have my AV rack located in my utility room with my furnace and my tankless water heater. The windowless room gets pretty hot 75+ degrees and I have even shut off the vent on the air handler portion of the furnace so no additional heat is entering the room. I can't imagine that being good for my AV / home automation equipment. So I would like to cool it down. I have tired hooking up a C4 thermostat to an exhaust fan, which technically works, but isn't powerful enough to cool the room down - not to mention that its not really adding any cool air to the room. Are there any portable air conditioners that can integrate with an external thermostat (like Control4 thermostat)? I have a 4 or 6-inch vent that is currently connected to the exhaust fan that I could repurpose. I could just put in a portable AC and have the unit's thermostat do its thing, but I like the ability to be able to set the room's temperature via C4 and be able to monitor it remotely as well. Any other thoughts on cooling my utility room? PS - what temperature should the room ideally be at? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Alan Chow has an IR driver, that control any IR controllable hvac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshMania Posted November 6, 2016 Author Share Posted November 6, 2016 On 11/4/2016 at 3:48 PM, msgreenf said: Alan Chow has an IR driver, that control any IR controllable hvac Thanks, but that won't show me the temperature - unless i hook up another 3rd party temperature sensor. I would have thought there would be something simpler... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Personally i think that it will be a horrible waste of energy as you have several devices that are trying to heat up and you will be adding a device to cool down in the same room. Having said that though you're kind of stuck due to poor decisions of whoever setup that rack. Most HVAC systems thats manage rack based equipment is never turned off and is managed via its own internal thermostat. It will self regulate the temperature of the rack room and no feedback is required to the control system. You may however want to integrate it so that on power failure the unit is turned back on when power is restored. In regards to what temperature all electronics work better when they are colder but as long as they are within the manufacturers recommended ratings then you will be fine. If in doubt room temperature is fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d1amund Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Room temp of 75 means nothing, what is your internal rack temp? You want that generally no more than 85F for consumer-grade equipment. Your situation is a poor design from the get go unfortunately. Maybe start with the Middle Atlantic thermal management white paper. Other than that I would consult with an HVAC specialist to do proper calculations and recommendations of whether you truly need forced cooled air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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