I plan on building some cabinets to go on either side of my fireplace to house the components for my LCD tv.

The purpose of the cabinets is to hide the components. However, I am concerned about ventilation.

I have two proposed designs and want to know which one will allow for most efficient ventilation.

#1 will allow for 1 inch on the sides of each component. (left hand side)

#2 offers much wider shelves. components could be side by side of stacked vertically. This offers a much greater volume of air as the cabinet is not divided in half.

It would be nice to be able to avoid installing a fan, but with solid doors and an enclosed space would passive ventilation suffice?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=144933&d=1244658896
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=144932&d=1244658896

What kind of gear will you have going in there?

I would think basic cable box and DVD player, etc. would be fine, but if you're going to put a receiver in, maybe an amp or 2...it's gonna get hot. And don't even think about putting a game console closed up in there, unless you plan on doing some baking at the same time. :)

Even with the extra volume of air in #2, there will be 0 circulation in a completely enclosed box. Have you thought about possibly cutting large sections out of the back behind where the components will sit, or adding side vents? Heck, if you're going to have solid doors on the front, I would not even bother to put a back panel on it.

I would suggest at the bare minimum leaving the back off and installing a small fan in the rear to pull hot air off of your components. Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable with an enclosed box and no circulation.

The cabinet will house dvr, dvd & Onkyo receiver.

It will be located in the corner of a room as a "built-in" so leaving the back off won't do much as it will be tight against the wall.

I was thinking of installing side vents. One low and one high with a fan on the upper to exhaust hot air. Aesthetically, it's not ideal... but necessary nonetheless. In this case, which plans would give me the best cooling? Do I need to drill holes in the shelves to allow air to rise? Maybe use wire shelves?

I've seen cabinets like what you are designing that have cutouts where the side meets the top. These are sometimes 2/3 of the width of the side and about 3/4" to 1" tall.

For the shelves, I have an AV cabinet that has shelves that don't go all the way to the rear. In mine, the sidewall is 24" deep, but the shelves are 21". The idea is that you leave the space at the back for heat to rise. The back of the cabinet also has slots cut into the top of the back to allow heat to escape. The slots are about 9" wide and about 2" tall. There are three of them in the cabinet.

The HD cable box that I have runs really, really hot. When the amp is running, it gets really hot in the cabinet. I usually leave the door open when I've got the amp running.

CJ

I like carboranadum's idea about cutting the shelves short so you have a couple inches of space in the rear of the cabinet. With that in mind, I would go with design #2, since it creates a single air space rather than dividing the enclosure in 2. On the other hand, if you know all your components will be in the left-hand side, and the larger open space is merely for storage, go with #1.

Something along the lines of this should do the trick:
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/sports-imports/305275.jpg
Found here: http://www.coolcomponents.com/Cabinet-Toe-Kick-Vent-System_p_218.html#

You can easily DIY for cheaper than this solution, but you get the idea. Long linear grill at the bottom to pull air, exhaust fan in upper side corner near the back?

Ok so I have already built cabinets similar to what you are doing. I just fried my Xbox 360 for the second time and would like to install some type of cooling system. Here is a pic of my cabinets. I might go the route of the post above mine. Do you think this will help? Good luck with the cabinet build......

Some of the components have moved around I have a Onkyo receiver on the bottom shelf with an apple airport extreme, on the second shelf I have my cable box and 360 on top of that with a laptop cooler in between, and on the third shelf I have the power conditioner and PS3 on top of that. The power conditioner doesn't seem to create any heat at all (I find that surprising). Any ideas are really appreciated.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3185/2480665934_94e0d6a612_b.jpg

Thats a nice setup.

Thats a nice setup.

Thanks.... I would like to get a bigger TV but with a baby on the way that is out of the question.

Either config will work if you manage the airflow correctly. However, neither config will be acceptable if you intend to have the doors closed and don’t have any forced air moving through there. But a few more questions first.

1) You said these will be built in, will the top of the cabinets be butted up against the ceiling? Will they be up high with a bit of a gap? Or will it sit on the ground with the top of the cabinet at “desk/countertop height?”

2) How concerned are you with noise? None at all? Just enough that you could hear it if you were the only one sitting in the room in the middle of the night, but wouldn’t hear it when the TV was on? Could run a Hoover next to it and not realize the vacuum was on?

3) Do any of the components make noise that you are trying to reduce by closing the doors (I hear the newest gen game consoles can be a little loud, etc.) or will the closed cabinet doors be strictly to cover the sight of all those ugly electronic boxes?

4) Just how set are you on a depth of 24”, can it be deeper?

5) Have you accounted for space to run the cables? Not just in and out of the entertainment cabinet, but for space behind the components? Paths for airflow in the back will be seriously reduced if you have a bunch of cables coiled all over them.

-Suntan

Not sure if it has been suggested already but it also might be a good idea to put the hotter components on top (heat rises) so you don't bake everything else in your cabinet.

I would suggest something like THIS (http://www.buyextras.com/cafanmokisuh.html)?

(heat rises)

No it doesn't.

Hot *air* rises because it is less dense than the cooler air above it.

Sorry, but it always bugs the heck out of me when people say that. Also, people tend to rule out useful transfer paths for getting rid of unwanted heat because they incorrectly believe that "heat has to go up."

-Suntan

wow.