SOUND ON SOUND

[tom winstanley]

Hello we have to get a ball park figure for heat out put in out machine room , 3 1000W amps , 2 large desk power supplies. I know this is vague but all the gear is in deep store or the info is not on the net, the amps are c-audio from the nineties, the psu s for a 28 channel raindirk symphony and it’s automation system . Any ideas ? Thanks

[ef37a]

Hi Tom, can't be of much use I am afraid but, can you at least find out if the equipment uses 50/60Hz supplies or Switch Mode?

If the latter the power supplies will put out very little heat, be about 90% efficient. Can you find the power consumption of the Raindirk desk? If so you can plug that figure into the 90% equation.

Similarly, if the 1kW amps use SMPSUs then the idle power will just be mostly that of the output stage and that will depend on its design. Could be ~30W per amp or 3W per amp or, if they are class D, next to buggerall! Naturally the dissipation under drive with be higher.

How big is the room?Is it well ventilated? Ambient temperature? It takes a lot of watts to raise the temperature of a room of say 1200cu ft by 1dgrC . And, am I in the wrong forum or do we not have a HVAC engineer on the strength?

Dave.

[tom winstanley]

Thanks Dave , we can’t get access to the gear , (covid!) but their early nineties and roar away like a fan heater as do the psus so definitely not d type !

[blinddrew]

I think Wonks is our main HVAC man but he's not around so much at the moment.

[tom winstanley]

hello
thanks for the help so far.

the desk psu is 1725VA

3 c-audio amps at 5A each

3x omnophonics amps at 1.6A

saturn 24 trk tape at 600VA

again a ballpark figure will do . it wont be installed till 2022.

cheers

[resistorman]

Mini-Splits are relatively inexpensive, especially if you purchase and install yourself. Plus there isn’t a huge difference in price going up the btu ladder.

[gullfo]

you may be better served by having that gear racked in a machine closet that is isolated so you can be ruthless with the cooling without noise in the room. you can also shield the closet etc to it's not doing too much EMI into the main room. depending on the actual heat generated you can then decide if you want some into the returns to even the temp in the main room. or if not connect to the HVAC system, a mini-split or standalone AC with venting might do the job.

another option - replace the PSU and amps with modern switching devices - it will save a lot of money on the electricity bill alone. CO2, etc and all that.

[tom winstanley]

Thanks all , I’ll post the copy to our architect and see what she says .