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Component Rack in Furnace Room, good idea?

post #1 of 12
1/9/13 at 6:59pm
Thread Starter 
Hello,

First post for me.

I'm finishing my basement. The furnace room (Forced Hot Air Furnace and Hot Water Heater) will be enclosed in a 11' x 7'6" space. The walls surrounding the furnace will be insulated.

This "furnace room" is the optimal location for my components because it's centrally located in the basement and will provide me with a lot of wiggle room to mess around with wires. Plus, there's really no alternative location anywhere else in the basement.

My concern is that the furnace room will get very hot and damage the components.

Does anyone have experience with this? What temperature is safe for components? How hot can I expect my enclosure to get? What types of ventilation hardware (vents, fans, etc) can I get to alleviate my problem?
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post #2 of 12
1/10/13 at 6:35am
Speaking from my own experience, my basement rarely gets too hot. I think a lot depends on how much equipment you are looking to house in there. A couple of well placed fans to circulate the air should be fine. Unless you are putting a lot of things in there.
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post #3 of 12
1/10/13 at 7:29am
I have routers and switches built into the common wall between the stair case and the furnace. They haven't gotten too hot yet.
The problem you will have will be with the equipment being too hot for the room i think - not the furnace causing issues. This is because the room isn't that big and the air flow is probably not optimal.
My suggestion - hopefully it's winter and cold where you are - is to check the temp in there over a period of time and see how hot it is without the equipment before making any decisions. It probably is fine but doing this you will figure out if (without the equipment) the room is too hot already.
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post #4 of 12
1/10/13 at 8:06am
My furnace room is about the same size as yours, and is carved out of the theatre space. When I go into the furnace room I find it quite warmer than the rest of the basement.

The furnace room is staggered stud and insulated w Roxul. Inside is my gas furnace and gas HWT. Everything is externally fed and vented except for the HWT which gets its air from the house (I can only vent it, not feed it) Because of the HWT config I have a 5"x8"(ish) airway going into the furnace room (zig-zaged and lined with 2" Certainteed CB300). Even with this venting into the room, the furnace room is still warm.

Other point: I don't know how loud your furnace is, but if you put the rack in there forget isolating the sound even slightly.
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post #5 of 12
1/10/13 at 8:12am
Where I live code mandates that there is airflow at both the top and bottom between the furnace room and an adjacent room. That itself has kept it at the same temperature as the rest of the basement. I partly wish I had put my rack there instead just because there is so much room, and it has access to everywhere in case I need to run wires in the future.
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post #6 of 12
1/10/13 at 8:13am
Put a thermometer in the room, but I really doubt the furnace room will get too hot. If it does, find the leak and seal it! tongue.gif
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post #7 of 12
1/10/13 at 8:29am
I'm in the same boat, AV equipment, servers, and routers all in the furnace room. It's warmer than the rest of the basement, but not so much that I'm concerned about the equipment. If it does get too warm, you can get something like a bath fan and have it hooked up to a cooling thermostat. Vent that to another part of the basement.
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post #8 of 12
1/10/13 at 5:19pm
I have my AV rack in my furnace room not much of a temperature difference. However whenever my furnace kicks on the EMI from the blower motor knocks out the picture to my TV. I'm using a HDMI extender over CAT6 with UTP cables, so def get shielded cables for everything.
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post #9 of 12
1/10/13 at 5:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by megrog2 View Post

I have my AV rack in my furnace room not much of a temperature difference. However whenever my furnace kicks on the EMI from the blower motor knocks out the picture to my TV. I'm using a HDMI extender over CAT6 with UTP cables, so def get shielded cables for everything.

Or get a new blower motor
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post #10 of 12
1/10/13 at 6:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by petew View Post

Or get a new blower motor
Blower motor is tip top, furnace is only a year old
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post #11 of 12
1/11/13 at 10:06am
I have had my component rack situated with the equipment facing the finished room & backing to the HVAC & sump room for several years. There has been absolutely no problem with this configuration, though, as has been mentioned, your furnace running will definitely raise the soundfloor in the finished room.
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post #12 of 12
1/11/13 at 5:54pm
I would think that is fine as long as there is enough circulation through the room. That is what I plan to do. My storage area is approx 11x19 and has the hvac blower heater and hot water heater. There is an intake for the blower that takes up some air from the room itself and the room has a vent to one of the adjacent rooms and so there is plenty of circulation.

As far as the noise is concerned. I am going to make a small equipment room in between the storage area and the ht room which will be soundproofed.

I might suggest putting all of the equipment behind a soundproofed door or something so the heat and noise are both kept out.
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