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Vented Fireplace Rig?

I

IEC

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
Messages
139
Since warm weather is coming soon and I don't want 2000W of heat generation in my home during the Texas summer, I'm moving a rack to the garage and considering re-configuring one of my racks to be in the fireplace.

I would fab an acrylic or similar faceplate to "seal" the fireplace from the living room except for a few cold air intakes to have fans blowing room temp air in. The vent would be left open to exhaust hot air out the top of the fireplace through the chimney.

Has anyone tried doing something similar during the summer?
 
IEC said:
I would fab an acrylic or similar faceplate to "seal" the fireplace from the living room except for a few cold air intakes to have fans blowing room temp air in. The vent would be left open to exhaust hot air out the top of the fireplace through the chimney
Click to expand...

Any conditioned air you exhaust from the house through the flue will be replaced in the house by outside ambient air pulled in through cracks, so it remains a heat load on your AC. Particularly if that air happens to get pulled in from a 140F attic.

Generally the only way you're going to remove the heat load is by removing the heat source from the conditioned space completely, either by physically taking it outside or isolating a room completely from the conditioned space with it's own outside intake and exhaust. i.e bringing the outside inside.

Although here's an idea... What about completely sealing the fireplace and pulling air in through the ash door outside to be exhausted up the flue? You'd be using totally outside ambient air to create the airflow, while still looking damn cool.
 
LZ_Xray said:
Any conditioned air you exhaust from the house through the flue will be replaced in the house by outside ambient air pulled in through cracks, so it remains a heat load on your AC. Particularly if that air happens to get pulled in from a 140F attic.

Generally the only way you're going to remove the heat load is by removing the heat source from the conditioned space completely, either by physically taking it outside or isolating a room completely from the conditioned space with it's own outside intake and exhaust. i.e bringing the outside inside.

Although here's an idea... What about completely sealing the fireplace and pulling air in through the ash door outside to be exhausted up the flue? You'd be using totally outside ambient air to create the airflow, while still looking damn cool.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's actually a better idea because then it is almost no indoor heat load (and would still look awesome).

Though I think in terms of cooling efficiency my original thought of buying an old broken fridge or other medium to large sized appliance and converting it into a mining rig would be better in terms of being able to run it outside on the back porch.
 
I wanna see pics of this once it happens. You may even make the front page.
 
Along similar lines, I run my six-card GTX 750 Ti rig in our furnace closet with an open (pre-existing), grated ceiling into the attic.

The house temperature seems unaffected. And the closet and rig stay cool on overcast days. But on sunny days when the attic heats up, convection is lost and the furnace closet gets pretty darn warm. :(
 
IEC said:
Since warm weather is coming soon and I don't want 2000W of heat generation in my home during the Texas summer, I'm moving a rack to the garage and considering re-configuring one of my racks to be in the fireplace.

I would fab an acrylic or similar faceplate to "seal" the fireplace from the living room except for a few cold air intakes to have fans blowing room temp air in. The vent would be left open to exhaust hot air out the top of the fireplace through the chimney.

Has anyone tried doing something similar during the summer?
Click to expand...

Moisture and humidity would be a major issue...
 
jmilcher said:
Moisture and humidity would be a major issue...
Click to expand...

It's very dry here and rain is rare. One of those plastic Rubbermaid double door cabinets under the (covered, fenced in) back porch area would likely be more than enough to protect against the elements, with fan intakes and exhausts using dryer ducts. It'd be ugly and likely be vetoed, though.

Also, the operating temperature of the PC components will be easily kept above the dew point in the summer.

Come fall/early winter the components would be brought back inside and installed in the spare guest bedroom on shelving racks as they are now.
 
Sorry to disappoint guys, but the other plans were predictably vetoed (minus maybe, maybe building one into the fireplace just for amusement factor). So I've got my rigs all hashing away in the garage now.

Which still helps - very little of that heat will make its way into the house. :)
 
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