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I had similar concerns and researched: while there's consensus heat reduces component life, you'll get varying answers on what's 'ok'. My goal was to get from 100 to 80, and I was able to by running an exhaust fan/return air, which works year round. In my case it's connected directly to the rack, but that's an optimization vs. necessity to work. See below for a little more, if curious.

 

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That seems very warm.  I'd consider running HVAC into the room with a vent that can be easily closed in the winter to keep the heat out.  Really cool (but way overkill) would be to put a Z2IO in the room to get temp and a controllable vent close/open solution and automate it!  

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So got my AC Infinity set up today. Super simple took 30 minutes. Placed temp probe in the rack set to keep 75 or below. Mounted controller so when I open door I can see it quickly. Probably never will get that low but def helps and now I can finally keep the door closed lol.  

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For my data closet, the dealer installed a bathroom fan and vented it out through what looks like a clothes dryer vent.  The fan is actually the loudest piece of equipment followed by the 10x10 matrix.

How quiet is the AC Infinity that you are using in the pictures?  How would you compare it to a bathroom fan, or your loudest piece of equipment? 

 

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On 6/11/2021 at 1:45 PM, tcwalker5 said:

For my data closet, the dealer installed a bathroom fan and vented it out through what looks like a clothes dryer vent.  The fan is actually the loudest piece of equipment followed by the 10x10 matrix.

How quiet is the AC Infinity that you are using in the pictures?  How would you compare it to a bathroom fan, or your loudest piece of equipment? 

 

Another option if you're worried about noise: I mounted my unit in the crawl space, so all I hear in the room/house is rushing air.

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Always remember that any air out of the house has to be made up with exterior air, depending where you live this can mean that you are pulling in hotter air or a higher humidity, let alone any allergens in the air.  I have two fans in my closet but also have a much higher heat load with some servers.  Fan one, ac infinity, pulls air and recycles it into the return side of the air handler. This allows the heat to be spread across the entire house when the ac is off and pulled through and cooled when the ac is on, in these Texas summers the ac isn't off much.  For fan two it is on a temperature relay that only comes on if the temp reaches 100 in the closet which I have had happen a few times with all servers on, this just dumps the hot air outside but again is only in the extreme and non-normal condition.  The AC Infinity fans are good but make sure you test it upon delivery, I had the first one that I ordered come with the blower out of balance causing quite a bit of excess noise at higher speeds.

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My exhaust to exterior is a 4" flexible dryer duct that goes from the top of the closet straight down to ground level outside so about 8'.  Not the ideal route but because the path is short it might not be too bad.  I've tried to read up on how many CFM the duct can handle but can't seem to find conclusive answer.

So my question is, can I get a larger fan to move more air at slower speeds (and hopefully quieter) and still move adequate air, or should I match the fan size to the duct size?  

Quietest option is the goal.

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larger fan will be quieter.

24 minutes ago, tcwalker5 said:

My exhaust to exterior is a 4" flexible dryer duct that goes from the top of the closet straight down to ground level outside so about 8'.  Not the ideal route but because the path is short it might not be too bad.  I've tried to read up on how many CFM the duct can handle but can't seem to find conclusive answer.

So my question is, can I get a larger fan to move more air at slower speeds (and hopefully quieter) and still move adequate air, or should I match the fan size to the duct size?  

Quietest option is the goal.

I personally when we upgraded the A/c in the home we added a return duct to my office where all of my equipment lives. This has reduced the temperature of my office by a few degrees but during the summer i run another fan to draw air out of the room into the hall.

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I cut two pass-thrus in the sheet rock in mine, and then installed one of the appropriate exhaust fans on the inside of the closet from https://www.acinfinity.com/closet-room-fan-systems/.  The exhaust is up near ceiling height where it more or less blows straight at an HRV return vent.  There's a second pass-thru cut at floor height.  The outside of that wall, which faces into a hallway just have a blank grate on each similar to this: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Accord-Ventilation-White-Steel-Louvered-Sidewall-Ceiling-Grilles-Rough-Opening-6-in-x-20-in-Actual-7-75-in-x-21-75-in/1000442541

Running the AC infinity at half-speed gives me about 75 F in the room and the noise isn't really an issue - the mini-split fans make more noise.  I know their products are pretty simple, but I really am a fan of the AC Infinity stuff for how easy they are to use in these situations.

I had to do the same for a utility closet, where the wine room had vented a thru-wall chiller's output and that room was getting too warm.  AC Infinity again...

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Similar issues here. I had tried multiple fan ideas. Several fans in the rack. Bottom line the closet just could not get enough air flow to cool the rack. Seems that the MOIP's made most of this heat. I first installed a grill on the outside of this closet. The closet is approx 2 x 5 foot. Heat still built up pretty quickly. Second I installed a small fan in the ceiling. Still not enough to cool the rack. Decided to use one of the small A/C's built for server rooms. Runs on 110v. And most importantly it does not require a condensate line or tank to drain. It heats up the condensate and pumps it out with the hot exhaust air that I am ducting into the attic. I installed a remote Temperature sender in the rack to turn on and off the A/C. It is also ip addressable.Only issue is its not really that quiet. Not an issue for me where it is at. The closet is away from my living areas. Over all worked great. No more oIMG_6864D.thumb.jpg.4372b870ab68126ca63df1eadc17c49a.jpgIMG_7283.thumb.jpg.a2dea18747b92f1a82d1f11a319b97d4.jpgIMG_7597.thumb.jpg.6d4c41ae5b7ec66d91117af20a95f21b.jpgIMG_7596.thumb.jpg.5d84ae7f9414dc59bc875672b1d80b82.jpgverheating problem. 

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