Heat Dissipation with Rotel 1066/1075

[aramb]

I have the Rotel 1066/1075/1070 rackmounted in a 43-space Middle Atlantic rack, along with a lot of other equipment. The amps and processor put out quite a bit of heat. The 1075 and 1070 are rackmounted about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the rack. The processor is about 1/3 of the way down from the top. At the very top of the rack is a smaller amp for the subwoofer. The rack is installed in a small closet. Am I going to have a heat problem? Any suggestions?

The link below is to the diagram of my equipment rack layout.
Rack Layout

Thanks for the help.

AramB

[Danbry39]

Hi Aram,

It's hard to tell. It depends in large part on how small the closet in. If it's too small with little ventilation, the heat will remain, for the most part trapped. I've heard that it's best to have the biggest heat generating components as close to the bottom as possible, due to the fact that heat rises and you don't want heat from other components rising into, and thus adding, to the heat of the amps.




Keith

[Andrew Pratt]

Could you install a small fan to help circulate the air in the closet? You can run the small computer fans from a variable voltage wall adapter which would allow you to vary the speed and thus noise of the fan. There's also some very quite fans made for PC's so that may not be an issue now (it was when I bought mine 6 years ago)

[Kevin D]

How small of a closet? My system is remarkable similar to yours and I only have problems when really driving my speakers hard for 2+ hours. My Middle Atlantic rack is flushed into a 3'x2' coat closet. I even ran the 1066 directly under a 1066 amp with no vent panel for 8 months with no problems. I do have my 1095 mounted on top, with about 1' to the ceiling. I would suggest moving them closer to the top than the bottom. Even if the heat buildup is more prominent with them on top, there will be more room to dissipate than lower in the rack with only a 1U vent.

All my DVD's are in the closet and you can almost develope a sweat trying to pick one out it gets so hot in the closet. An AC vent in there won't help due to it being a heat vent part of the year. My solution, when I get around to it, is to place a small filter vent in the ceiling with duct running into the return air duct. That way, heat or cool, the stagnent hot air will be pulled out regularly. That way you won't be venting hot air to another area of the house and you won't be circulating hot air inside the closet.

I've got a 45U rack and just this weekend hung 6U more from the ceiling inside the closet for my DSS unit and 4 Rane EQ's.. So if anyone ever asks, you can hang a rack from sheetrock with 22g wire..

Kevin D.

[aramb]

My rack closet is an odd shape and size because it is built in to a corner of the room. Kevin, if you take a look at the link in my original post, you can see the room layout and rack cabinet on the lower right-hand corner of the diagram.

I was considering getting one or two of the Middle Atlantic QFANs. I just was not sure how quiet they would be. I have also talked to my contractor about adding a fan in the ceiling of the rack closet that would vent the air into the attic above.

Kevin, I don't know if this occured to you when looking at my rack diagram, but the bottom six spaces house the turntable. The turntable is small, and so basically the bottom six spaces in the rack provide a large intake area for air if I decide to install Middle Atlantic or attic fans.

Thanks for the ideas. I appreciate it.