Heat Issue

[sammorris]

The portable AC units exhaust the hot air out the back the same way a proper AC unit does, as far as I'm aware. It's just up to you to run the tube outside the room, or it will achieve nothing...

[Phage]

. When I use my Quad Crossfire system back at my parents' house, it can raise the room temperature from 25ºC to as high as about 37ºC, .

Bloody hell - Your PC raises the Temperature of the room to 37C ?
That is not comfortable inside.

[sammorris]

Indeed not, it's bloody awful. Still, it's my fault for having a PC that uses 700W... Hence why I have a less absurd PC that I use for normal work and light gaming.

[Georgy291]

Indeed not, it's bloody awful. Still, it's my fault for having a PC that uses 700W... Hence why I have a less absurd PC that I use for normal work and light gaming.

light gameing?

[sammorris]

As in Plants vs Zombies, older titles, web flash games and so on, rather than current gen mainstream like Supreme Commander. Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and so on which are run on the gaming PC.

[jim]

I'd guess it's less about moving air through pressure and more about insultating that hot air from the room - it'll naturally exchange heat with the cooler air outside so it's just a case of making sure the pipe is insulated well enough.

It will naturally exchange, yes, but only extremely slowly unless it goes upwards like a chimney, to encourage a convection current. That's why I'm thinking you'd probably want some fans... still not convinced though

The portable AC units exhaust the hot air out the back the same way a proper AC unit does, as far as I'm aware. It's just up to you to run the tube outside the room, or it will achieve nothing...

Also bear in mind that if it goes through a window and leaves a gap you'll be wasting a lot of money air-conditioning air from outdoors.

[sammorris]

Well, it's £140 for a PAC or several thousand for a proper system to be fitted. I doubt most people would be concerned about wasting a bit of energy given that...

[Lucio]

Right, so it's plan B then. I'm off to move to Canada!

Out of interest, are there bits of my system that I can switch to save a bit of heat? My main culprit I suspect is the 8800GT which runs at between 75 and 90 degrees.

[Phage]

Right, so it's plan B then. I'm off to move to Canada!

Out of interest, are there bits of my system that I can switch to save a bit of heat? My main culprit I suspect is the 8800GT which runs at between 75 and 90 degrees.

I dunno about that. My old PC runs a P4, 3Gb RAM, and an 8800GT from a 480W supply, and I was so cold yesterday that I couldn't feel my toes. (I was playing L4D, ambient was ~15C and I was wearing shorts). It's watts not C that matter.

I still find it hard to believe that a system running an 8800GT is drawing that much power that it is raising the air temp of a large room by 12C. I haven't the knowledge to do the calcs, but that is a metric buttload of watts. How hot is the exhaust from the system ?

Heh. Watercool the system and then run the pipes outside to a heat exchanger would be my solution.

Just read your earlier post. Quad cross fire 8800GTs - plural. That would indeed do it. Buy a new 4870x2 or GTX395. You'll recoup the money from your power bills in about a week !

[scaryjim]

I can strongly recommend a portable air con unit, actually - I got one a couple of years ago which also acts as a dehumidifer as it was on special offer and not much more expensive than a dehumi on its own. We then moved into a modern, well insulated house and the stream of cold air kicked out by a proper air con was absolute bliss all last summer - and I suspect it will be even more so this year! It's true that the efficiency isn't the best due to having to point the hose out of a window, causing air leakage, but it's a damn site better than having the window open on its own

[jim]

What sort of diameter are the hoses typically?

[scaryjim]

Obviously I'm not at home so I can't measure it, but the one we've got is pretty solid - from memory it's probably between 18 & 24cm. The hose is a concertina type so it can be squashed and stretched. I'm pretty sure it could be drilled through a wall though, or even adapted down to a smaller diameter hose (cue use of lots of gaffer tape )

[jim]

Obviously I'm not at home so I can't measure it, but the one we've got is pretty solid - from memory it's probably between 18 & 24cm. The hose is a concertina type so it can be squashed and stretched. I'm pretty sure it could be drilled through a wall though, or even adapted down to a smaller diameter hose (cue use of lots of gaffer tape )

Cheers for that. I just remembered being in a dentist's surgery a few years back in the summer, seeing a window wide open with a huge hose through it, and a portable air-con unit on max power... while I could still feel the hot breeze from outside. Seemed like a real waste of electricity to me.

The reason I ask is because I'm seriously thinking about getting some, seeing as my room is a loft conversion, and therefore catches the worst of the sun and really heats up during the day. However, opening a Velux to put a huge hose through would probably defeat the object considering the size of the gap it would create - if it could be squashed a bit though, or something, it would be a lot more practical.