How your Classe components affect your listening room temperature?

[Classe4me]

My family room which is my getaway and only a decent substitute for a dedicated home theater, even though it has a much high WAF, has an issue that I am curious to know if and how it affects the rest of you.

This room is about 22 X 22 with an entrance that is about 4 feet wide with no door. I have Andersen windows with high performance glass (Low E and argon filled I suppose), is decently insulated and is actually under conditioned space above which is the walk in closet in my master bedroom. It is constructed over a crawl space with concrete covering the entire floor.

Prior to my current system I never really had any issues with temperature variation because I run (2) two-stage heat pumps with variable speed air handlers, with the fan running 24/7 to eliminate stratification. Prior to my system changeouts I always had an 8 to 10 degree differential between first and second floor due to having high vaulted ceilings and my home being of contemporary design and facing east and west with hundreds of square feet of windows facing those sunny directions. One of my air handlers is located in a closet in this family room and I have an 8 inch take-off right off of the supply plenum that used to keep this room very comfortable.

Ever since I upgraded my system to the Classe gear with the CA-5200, the SSP-600, and the CDP-502, a 60" Pioneer Elite plasma, and miscellaneous components like a DirecTV HD DVR, monster power conditioner, a Sony BDP-350 Blu-ray player, an HDMI switcher, and a Rotel tuner.

It's not unusual for me to spend all day in this room on a Saturday and Sunday both and watch 3 to 5 DVDs or other movies, one right after another. In the winter it's like having a fireplace which is nice, but in the summer it's like an oven in here by the time I get to about the end of the second or beginning of the 3rd movie. I am talking about it getting a good 8 to 12 degrees hotter in this room than any other in the house.

I have purchased a Fujitsu Halcyon mini-split heat pump with inverter technology that will deliver the exact amount of cooling (or heating) I need as I need it without the compressor kicking on and off and short cycling all day. I know this will take care of any amount of heat this system generates because it is a 15,000 BTU capacity unit.

My question is, do any of you have issues with your listening, watching, or home theater rooms getting uncomfortably hot when you are doing some serious listening and watching on a warm or hotter than normal day? If so, what do you do to deal with the additional heat?

I am in the HVAC business and think that the Mitsubishi Mr. Slim is one of the very best mini-splits money can buy, but the Fujitsu is every bit as good and actually had a higher SEER and HSPF rating at the time I ordered it and it also has a built in air filtration system that uses the same basic technology as Trane Clean Effects.

Now I just need to figure out where to mount this where it will be the least obtrusive and not blow chilly air on me.

For those of you who have never seen or been exposed to a mini-split, it will totally blow your mind as for how unbelievable quiet it is compared to a PTAC (motel unit). They are also incredibly efficient because they do not need or use an auxiliary resistance heat strip in heat pump mode.

I am anxious to install this unit in the spring and know it will be a much better solution to running the ceiling fan on high as I did before.

I would like to know if you have these issues and how you deal with them. I can only imagine how much more heat some of your systems can produce that are running monoblocks and multi-channel amps versus my one 5 channel amp.

Feedback will be appreciated.

[garak]

It appears we have pretty similar systems. SSP-800, CA-5200 and CDP-102 here. Our room size is also similar - 17X24 here.

However, I can't say that I experience the same heating of the room that you're having. My CA-5200 does get pretty hot, but I can't say that it would heat the room by the amount you're getting.

I work from home, so my system is usually on for 8 hours straight. I don't have the TV on that much. I know that plasma TVs can generate a lot of heat, and since you're watching 4-5 DVDs straight, perhaps that is the difference.

But you'd obviously know what kind of cooling to get for your situation, so I'm sure you'll get things worked out.

[sikoniko]

The problem in my room is that I don't have a return. I need to cut the wall apart to install one. I bought the vents, but I need a box that prevents the air from going inside the walls. I haven't seen one at lowes or home depot.

[Gump]

My Family Room gets a bit hot during the summer, but I live in Phoenix for crying out loud! Between 110 and 120 can be the norm here in July and August.
I also have a 60" Pioneer Plasma Kuro and there's no doubt that it generates a bit of warmth. The quality of the picture is worth the trade-off though. Combine that with the other electronics and you can feel the warmth if you hang out right around where the equipment is located. Its not excessive, though and bumping the AC down a coupla notches eliminates any discomfort. I haven't got the CA-5200 yet, which is supposed to generate quite a bit of extra heat as well.

Those mini-splits are pretty neat. I considered getting one installed in my garage which has one bay dedicated as an exercise/work out area. The estimate I got was about $2,000 to install it which was a little more than I wanted to spend. So, I got a BIG FAN instead and excepted the fact that sweating alot was part of the exercise equation :E .

[SchH III]

Classe4me:

This is an interesting post as I reside in the Northern part of the same state and our equipment is similar. My room is considerably smaller, approximately 14x26x8, situated in a finished room in the basement, with the doors normally closed. Components include 5 Classe CA-400 monoblocks, 1 Classe CA-2200, a CDP 202, a SSP-800, a Sony ES BD, and a Monster AVS 2000 and PRO 7000.

The zoned HVAC system includes 2 HE gas furnaces (do not know the BTU ratings) and two air conditioning units: a 5 ton and a 3.5 ton. Temperature differentials throughout the house are nominal...certainly not noticeable. In my listening room,an air return behind and almost equidistant from heat generating components has proved quite effective in exhausting warm air which probably precludes any heat buildup.

Prior to the monoblocks, I was powering the system with CA-5200 and, in my opinion, the 5200 generated more heat than the CA-400s which, in fact, are barely warm following extensive useage.

If there is not an air return proximate to your components, and since you are in the HVAC business, the installation may offer (or may not) a less expensive solution.

[Classe4me]

I am in the HVAC business and that can be helpful in certain situations, but I have a contemporary style home where the front faces due west and my house has tons of glass on the front and rear which means that I get bombarded with the morning sun, until about 2 in the afternoon, then I get the sun coming through the skylights, and then the afternoon sun blasts about 150 square feet of windows. Factor the solar heat gain with vaulted ceilings of 16 feet in the living room, 11 feet in the bedroom and 22 feet in the sunroom, you have a recipe for a house that can be a bear to keep comfortable due to stratification. You can't defy the laws of physics but you can rearrange them! With high efficiency gas furnaces and central A/C units I always had an 8 to 10 degree temperature differential between the first and second floor (thanks to the vaulted ceilings). Even though I have two systems they are not one for first floor and one for second. Instead there is a main system that is for the "normal" parts of the house and the second system is for the sunroom and a 24 by 36 bonus room that is situated over my garage. In other words it is over unconditioned space and has varying needs of heating and cooling capacity. The saving grace for comfort was replacing my fuel eating propane furnaces and 8 SEER A/Cs with two 2-stage, ultra-high efficiency heat pumps with variable speed air handlers. The units operate in first stage 80% of the time providing a more moderate and more constant amount of heating or cooling on a much more consistent basis. This took my 8 to 10 degree differential down to a 2 to 3 degree which is acceptable for such a cut up house.

This type of system eliminates short cycling, evens out hot and cold spots, and removes 4 to 8 times more humidity because the A/C has much more run time on first stage. Bottom line is, if your A/C isn't running it isn't doing a thing for you. It's not circulating air, it's not removing heat or humidity out of the air. It's just playing dead.

Where my problem lies is the room in which my system is located. It has three exterior walls and two of them are east and west. The eastern wall has no windows and the western wall has 4 casement windows together that is about 12 feet wide and 4 feet tall . It also has two on the south wall that are about 5 by 2. I have a large return on the non exterior wall which basically drags the heat across the room. The room is situated atop a concrete slab with not more than about 6 inches of clearance between the floor joists and no way to get under there to move a return behind the equipment. I could add another supply vent but it's on the end where the air handler is and would only be robbing Peter to pay Paul and would starve the opposite end of the trunk line for needed air flow.

I would much rather do the supply and return route for cost purposes but it's just not feasible with this setup. The mini-split is a great option even though it's not the lowest cost option. I built the house in 1985 and added onto it on 1991 and never dreamed I would have a system like I have where heat would be any kind of issue.

Our standard equipment is Trane and we normally sell Mitsubishi Mr. Slim mini-splits. We had a supplier that carried Mitsubishi and Fujitsu and decided to discontinue the Fujitsu line. It's an amazing unit and they closed them out at 50% off of dead cost. It was a deal I couldn't refuse. I am not here to sell or promote HVAC products but will tell all of you that if you have a sunroom, a bonus room, an addition, a garage, or anything that you want conditioned that your standard system will not be able to accommodate or be tapped into, the mini-splits with inverter technology are the most innovative HVAC products available today. The extremely high SEER ratings, HSPF ratings, how incredibly quiet they are, and the level of heat output at extremely low ambient temperatures.

Gump, If you were quoted a mini-split for $2000 and it had inverter technology you should have jumped on that one. The A/C only units are a little less money than the heat pumps but I can assure you that with the newest Mitsu units that provide 22 SEER, 10.55 HSPF on the heat side, and the new air filtration systems that they employ there is no way I can even buy that unit with the refrigeration lineset, electic disconnect, and needed installation items for that low of a price. I am not referring to you personally in the least, but unfortunately many people compare the mini-splits to PTACs (packaged terminal air conditioners, aka, motel units) and there is no comparison. It's like comparing a Corvette with a Chevette. The PTACs require a huge hole in your wall with a sleeve, a slide-in unit that leaved the home vulnerable to an easy break in (kicking the unit out), are extremely noisy, very inefficient, and have a somewhat short lifespan. Most PTACs I have seen usually require parts of some sort about every year to 18 months. The older mini-splits with standard compressors that cycle on and off were not the greatest thing going but with the advent of inverter technology which is much like cruise control where the compressor gives you the capacity you need as it needs it, ramping up and down with temperature and heat gain or heat loss. Much like your cruise control being set at 75 and keeping it there by giving my gas when going up hills, letting off when going down hills, and running at a given amount when on level terrain. On conventional systems with the indoor fan in auto mode, the unit has basically three motors starting every time the unit calls for heating or cooling. Every time it calls you are basically starting three motors that pull much more amperage at start-up versus if it were running more consistently. I look at it as comparing start and stop city driving, averaging about 20 to 25 miles per hour and getting about 20 mpg, versus highway driving averaging about 75 miles per hour and getting about 30 mpg on the average mid-size V6 sedan.

SchHIII, I would love to have three of those CA-M400 monoblocks of yours and would be happy with a CA-2100 for my surrounds. I bet your 7.1 system sounds phenomenal with all that power and the SSP-800. I'd love to hear it someday. Feel free to PM me if you ever want to chat. I'm curious to know what your choice of speakers is? I doubt I'd ever want to leave home!

Sorry for the HVAC lesson or soapbox preaching. I know this is Club Classe and not Club HVAC but I guess we're all entitled to go out on a tangent every now and then.