[vid53]

I'm thinking of installing a ceiling vent in my home theater before I drywall the ceiling,Which could bring in cold air from the outside, if the room starts to get hot. Has anyone done this?

 

[Jeff Hovis]

you live in Illinois and you want to pipe in the outside air in winter? You're obviously one of those crazy guys at Bears games with his shirt off in January;-)

 

[brickie]

Actually i'm with Jeff on this one..Not sure what you want to accomplish here.Why not just turn down the thermostat.


By the way, our new house is being built 15 minutes form you in Plano,Il.It gets COLD that far from city..I wouldn't do that if I were you.


brickie

 

[usabrian]

Why?


Guys, because this is what is done on expensive office buildings. It is called an "economizer" and what it does is use the outside air when temperatures drop below a threshold. It saves tons of energy. And the reason you would want this is so you are not cooling the rest of the house when your projector and your bodies and your equipment are heating the air and sound tight theater and you need to counteract that with AC.


Unfortunately, to my knowledge nobody has ever adapted this for home use. You would need a separate split system (furnace and AC) or extensive zoning/dampers. I also believe you would need a mixing box of some kind at the return air side to insure no moisture problems.


Brian

 

[garyfritz]

Outside air will be dry when it comes in and gets heated up. The RH may be high outside in the cold, but it will drop as the air warms. I doubt there would be much of a moisture problem if it's really cold outside.


Rather than piping cold air into your HT, why not vent the hot air out to some other part of your house? Then cooler air will come in to replace it. I've got a vent hose that pulls air from the PJ mount (& eventual hushbox) to a spot under a nearby stairway.

 

[bapenguin]

how about exhausting OUT of the theater to the outside. You won't have to worry abou thtings like condensation, etc then.

 

[Tom_Kini]

I was having some of the same concerns -- I have a dual forced air system - one for second floor (bedrooms) and one for first floor. I am trying to decided which system to put the basement and home theater room on. And what do I do if it gets too warm in the HT. It sounds like the simple solution might be to have a fan controlled exhaust from the HT into other parts of the basement. I guess I am looking for ideas on what others have done -- I hadn't thought about bringing in cool air - more exhausting warm.

 

[vid53]

At this point I cant afford to add special heating and cooling equipment.I cant see why, if it starts getting hot in the room I just turn on the fan and cool the room down. I have heard from a couple of builders with all the insulation and double drywall, it will get hot if someone farts in that room!I put in the extra vent. (Wont hurt)


thanks

 

[blipszyc]

Guys,

I just did this for my new home in Ohio. Unfortunately, you can't just "turn down the thermostat" as the AC condenser doesn't work properly below 50 degrees, and actually could be damaged if run below 50 for extendeded periods of time. So, our HVAC guy has installed dampers that will draw cool air from outside when needed. Only added a couple hundred to the price of what he was doing already, but was significatly cheaper than adding a heat pump system to the theater room only.

 

[Wrager]

I was considering the same thing. Even with the heat off and the fan on, my room gets very hot. I do have an in-line fan mounted above the PJ, exhausting into another room. It's still not enough. I need to figure something out???

 

[thebland]

It'd be great until a skunk showed up. Had that happen to me as my old equipment cooling system drew air from the crawl space. Guess what made a home in there and made it known during a movie!


True story!

 

[maddogmc]

What is Winter???


Oh, that is the 5 or 6 days a year when the temperature gets below 60 degrees! Seems like a lot of work for a little return!


90 F. this week and definitely NOT loving it... my AC needs some rest. Halloween costumes are going to be a B**ch!

 

[glennzippy]

Okay, so how about this:


What about some sort of vent system that pulls cooler air in from an unfinished area. I've been thinking about a pair of ducts that lead from the point where I'm mounting my projector to an unfinished space nearby. I could rig up some sort of push/pull fan system with a computer power supply and a couple of fans pretty easily...


Thoughts?

 

[Tom_Kini]

Quote:

Originally posted by glennzippy Okay, so how about this: What about some sort of vent system that pulls cooler air in from an unfinished area. I've been thinking about a pair of ducts that lead from the point where I'm mounting my projector to an unfinished space nearby. I could rig up some sort of push/pull fan system with a computer power supply and a couple of fans pretty easily... Thoughts?

I am in Ohio - not too far from blipszyc - so we have plenty of cold air to bring in. I am going to talk to my contractor who is working on the theatre right now to see about bringing in air from other parts of the basement that are unfinished. I think this might be the best way to get air circulating. A small fan would probably do it.

 

[Marc Ye]

Quote:

Originally posted by usabrian Why? Guys, because this is what is done on expensive office buildings. It is called an "economizer" and what it does is use the outside air when temperatures drop below a threshold. It saves tons of energy. And the reason you would want this is so you are not cooling the rest of the house when your projector and your bodies and your equipment are heating the air and sound tight theater and you need to counteract that with AC. Unfortunately, to my knowledge nobody has ever adapted this for home use. You would need a separate split system (furnace and AC) or extensive zoning/dampers. I also believe you would need a mixing box of some kind at the return air side to insure no moisture problems. Brian

Unfortunately, this would cost as much as just installing your own separate HVAC system for the theater. Believe me. I looked into this route. Go with a separate system if you can afford it.

 

[Toxarch]

I've seen people here do this before. It doesn't get that cold down here for long so I never thought much of it. If it gets hot in the theater, I just switch on the HVAC fan and let the hot air mix with the air in the rest of the house.

 

[outlier2]

Okay, as a Canadian with a basement theater I'm trying to imagine why you would waste this precious heat by either venting it outside or bringing in cold air from outside to cool your room. Go to Home Depot or your local hardware store and buy a thermostat for your main heat control that includes a 'fan only' option. This circulates air in your home without turing on either AC or furnace. This redistributes your heat using existing HVAC system. Works great as cheap AC in the summer as cooler air from the basement can be circulated throughout the home. Cheap, simple, effective.


Good luck.