gnomatron Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 I have a large-ish amp rack (44U, 10 rather old lab gruppens & xtas & emo power distro) that is experiencing heat problems, and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for cooling racks? It's stuck in a reasonably small room (maybe 3 by 4m?, most of that filled with stored kit) with poor ventilation, and can't move. We have a fan blasting air at the intakes of the amps, it's a bit of a bodge but it helps a little. We also re-racked everything a while ago so the amps aren't all next to each other; we have two next to each other, then a 2U emo power strip then another 2 amps and so on, to allow a bit more airflow between them. I know this is something of a site-specific problem, but if anyone's got any helpful thoughts they'd be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmills Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 What do you measure as ambient in the room when the amps are overheating? I take it you have had the amps apart to clean the filters and blow the fluff out? What is access to the back of the rack like? Nothing will help if the rear of the rack is all nicely sealed, and a set of fans sucking (or blowing, check what the amps do) air into or out of the back of the rack can help. Other then that, run lines from the buildings chiller plant to cool the amp room? Regards, Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceecrb1 Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 mounting mains voltage small 8cm fans (I'll post the RS code tomorrow) wherever you can and wiring them all up with a plug on the end. Can we have more details of the rack?(photo is best) is it completely closed? or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnomatron Posted November 4, 2007 Author Share Posted November 4, 2007 It's pretty much open at the back and front, though we've filled any spare rackspace at the front with blanking plates. Will post a photo when I get a chance to take one - maybe tomorrow! There's a lot of room at the back for fans, sounds like it might be worth a go. There's a small vent to the outside world as well in the room, I might try rigging up some ducting and a fan to get some fresh air flowing over the intakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Make sure all of the amp fans are working OK, and that any filters etc are clean. It's amazing how much crud accumulates inside this sort of kit even in a supposedly "clean" environment, never mind in a general store. Look at the airflow patterns of the amps. Are they all the same? Try to avoid having an amp that sucks cool air in the left and blows it out the right directly on top of one that blows from right to left - you'll just end up recirculating the hot air. Space between the devices is always good. Is it an open rack or does it have sides and doors? Sometimes opening the doors is counter-productive, especially if the rack has built-in fan trays. That's a little unusual in this scenario, but common in the IT world. There's a small vent to the outside world as well in the room, I might try rigging up some ducting and a fan to get some fresh air flowing over the intakes.I've got a small equipment room at work which sounds similar, and we had lots of heat problems. Yet there was a vent to the outside world, and a fan blowing cold air in. It was always working when checked. What someone had forgotten was that the room needed both an extract and supply route - in this case it only had supply. When the room door was open, it blew in plenty of cold air and all was OK. But as soon as the door was closed, the airflow in through the vent would stop. Now it has 2 ducted fans - supply and extract - and all is OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnomatron Posted November 4, 2007 Author Share Posted November 4, 2007 It has sides, but no doors. All the amps (bar one) are the same range of Lab Gruppens, I haven't checked they all blow the same way but I'd be very surprised if they didn't. I think they blow front to back, certainly their air filters are on the front and they have vents on the rear. We clean the filters fairly regularly but more often would be a good idea. It's not the amps that have been having problems, it's actually the crossovers and other kit, none of which have fans - we had an Oxmoor matrix in the rack which gave out at the worst possible time on friday. I might look into some rack fans to help them out a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 I think Bruce gets to a crucial issue in his last paragraph. It is often far more productive to extract the hot air from a room than it is to try to blast more and more air (chilled or not) into your gear. Sucking the hot air out will create a pressure differential that will help the situation greatly. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAATW Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 It has sides, but no doors. All the amps (bar one) are the same range of Lab Gruppens, I haven't checked they all blow the same way but I'd be very surprised if they didn't. I think they blow front to back, certainly their air filters are on the front and they have vents on the rear. We clean the filters fairly regularly but more often would be a good idea. It's not the amps that have been having problems, it's actually the crossovers and other kit, none of which have fans - we had an Oxmoor matrix in the rack which gave out at the worst possible time on friday. I might look into some rack fans to help them out a bit. Is the signal processing at the top of the rack? Might be a daft question but that tends to be where people normally put it and of course all the heat from all the amps in the rack will rise up to the top and cook it all - if you stick it at the bottom it may help alleviate the problem somewhat. Likewise if you duct cool air in and extract the warm air do it like an IT datacentre - air inlet to the bottom of the rack and extraction outlet at the top Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete McCrea Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 There is an interesting article in this months InAvate Magazine. They recommend running the amps at the bottom to help get the chimney effect really going. However I assume that this is desirable when there is correct extraction at the top of the rack, and removal of hot air as mentioned above. Unfortunately the current issue isn't available yet. Inavate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richie1575 Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Regarding your overheating amps. If there's 10 of them, and you're running loud, there will be several kilowatts of heat to get rid of. Have you thought about a small split type Air Conditioner? Fans are all very well, but they have motors which gererate heat and compound the issue by adding to the heat load! The heat needs to be "removed" from the room and the most effective way to do this if you have no decent ventilation is to get an A/C unit fitted! I know this seems a little overkill, but they are getting cheaper these days, but you need a skilled installer and a suitable location for the outdoor unit. Good Luck! Richie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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