Heat load of HT equipment

One important thing to consider is a large number of registers (vents) and big diameter duct. The goal is to be able to move a large amount of air at low speed in order to reduce AC noise. (Too few vents and/or too small ducts causes a more rapid movement of air and as a result more noise). You will probably also want an AC return in the HT.

The 24x16x8' bonus room that now is my HT originally only had one single 12x4" vent and no return. The air conditioning was very noisy as a result. After upgrading the ductwork and installing 4 additional 10x4" vents, the AC is now quiet and not disturbingly noisy as it used to be.
Edited by Peter Nielsen - 7/19/12 at 1:36pm

I am struggling with heat loads for this systems.

Are you wondering about the interior space where people sit, or the equipment room/racks? If it's the people space, just have an AC installer come give you a quote because they'll know exactly how to cool your room. If it's the equipment racks, it's not so much an issue of the ambient temperature as it is moving the air away from the individual components. When I stack servers, I put no more than two atop another at a time, and even that pushes it sometimes. If the equipment doesn't have an internal fan (only heatsinks) don't put anything on top of it and draw as much heat away as you can with external fans. To cool servers I've had good success with something as simple as putting a box fan behind the components to draw heat away. Then the cooling system of the room takes care of the heat once it's away from the components.

Not all AC installers take noise into account! Remember to tell them that the AC has to be silent, otherwise they may quote you for the most cost effective solution that does the job, and you may have to redo it because it ends up too noisy...

In the class you deal with Peter, don't you have a dedicated equipment room / booth? And that looks like power amps and audio processors. That stuff is usually set and forget and has some form of remote control via ethernet. Couldn't you put that gear just about anywhere keeping speaker cable distances in mind?

Look at that rack how can you not love this guy?

agreed this is the biggest issue aside from oversizing the HVAC for equipment heat loads

I think Dennis would specify a lower HVAC air flow (in terms of FPM) to address the noise issue: this makes the ducting and HVAC installation more expensive

Hi Glimmie, This is a penhouse, we would have to eliminate the butler's bed in order to do that.

Then throw the amps in the Butler's room. A good butler always tends to his master's amps!

What needs to be done is keeping the air conditioning *pressure* low, while still achieving the required CFM. This usually means oversized ducts and increasing the number and/or size of the registers. (High pressure = high localized air speed. Increase the air exit area, and you can move the same volume at lower speed and thus reduce noise).