[jnjloo]

ok, here's the deal, I live in Montana (brrr....) and am thinking of moving to a new house (on the river, hard to pass up). But, if I move I lose my beloved basement for my home theater. There is a huge garage in the new place, and the guy actually put in a like 32x30 "rec room" in the garage and it is heated and finished just like the inside of a house. Has it's own furnace and everything.


So, I really don't want to get rid of my home theater, but really don't want to heat this other room ALL the time just for the home theater, which I don't use as often as I'd like (my daughter's too young to sit through a whole movie as of yet).


So what I'd like to do is set up the projector in the room, and only heat the room when I'm going to use it. BUT, it can get down to 40 degrees below (farenheiht sp?, and did you know that 40F is equal to 40C?) and am wondering if that will freeze my beautiful projector and render it useless. I know/think there's liquid of some sort in the crt's and don't know if they can freeze and break, or freeze and discolor or not work right ect. ect. or not be thawed out when I turn the set on or what?? If so, I can't really justify 60-80.00/month to heat this area to keep my projector thawed out, so may have to junk the home theater

(NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....................), . Was thinking about enclosing just the projector somehow and trying to heat the space, but it has to be open to vent and all, so just don't know what to do.


I have a NEC XG 751


thanks so much to anyone who may have the answers for me, and I appreciate the help in advance.


dan

 

[Ericglo]

Dan,

That projector will never last up there, so send it down here and I promise to take it to the warm, sunny beach everyday.


Ericglo

 

[jnjloo]

maybe I should buy it a heating blanket aye?? Or pour hot coffee on it several times a day

 

[Semisentient]

Lot's of people build hush boxes for their projector with a thermostat to turn on cooling fans when the enclosure gets too hot. You can do the same, except turn on a heater when it gets too cold. As long as you keep it above freezing I imagine things should be fine.

 

[penticton102]

p'j when its on will run warm to hot and if it is in a cool to cold enviroment condensation could be a real concern and destroy your p.j i would give that arrangement a thumbs down.........

 

[ecrabb]

First of all - CRT coolant is usually mostly ethylene glycol - which is practically antifreeze. Freezing isn't so much the concern, I'd think. It's wasting a 1000 square feet of a house all winter long - the perfect time to be watching movies!


I don't think it would cost you much at all to hold that part of the house at 45 or 50 degrees unless the insulation is really poorly done. You could use a set-back thermostat to hold that cold temp all week, raise it to comfortable levels on Friday night, and return to cold temp point after 10pm on Sunday night or whatever. You'd get major savings and not worry about the equipment - and best of all, you'd still be able to use the room.


My whole house is 1200 sq. ft + a basement and my January bill (sub-zero at night) was $120 or so. I would imagine you could heat the room the way I mentioned above for $30 or 40/mo.


SC

 

[jnjloo]

that's what I'm talking about!!!!!!!!!!

good ideas guys, I like the one from semisentient about the box, but it would have to have vent holes right? So the pj could vent when it's running? and wouldn't that let my heat out.


Aha, I have it, a little door or something I open up on a closed box while it's running, and then close to keep the heat in, my mind is warming up to the ideas.


Alas, ecrabb, it's kind of a weird thing, the room is in the garage, and I could put a door in and use is as such if I can't get the room to work out. It's just a shame to do so almost, as it's really nicely finished. I'm just too cheap to heat it all the time, as I just know we wouldn't use it enough to even justify keeping it 50 degrees, but I do really like the ht, and plan on using it more in the future.


their bill last month was 220 for the gas and 80 for the elec, and I know that at least 80 of that was the huge room in the garage, it's a weird place for a room, but a really cool one, and the only chance I have to save my HT. I'll have to figure something out. Don't want to hurt it, but want to salvage my cheapness too (payment's going up to get the new house, so have to cut back somewhere )

thanks again for the interest

dan

 

[jnjloo]

just in case that wasn't clear for my response to ecrabb, the garage is seperate from the house, and the garage is 32x60 with this 32x25ish completely finished rec room in it, with it's own furnace. So it wouldn't be wasting a part of the house or keeping that part of the house warm, but instead heating that part of the garage, which other than for the ht, wouldn't really be used much........................... maybe I just won't move

thanks

dan

 

[garyfritz]

Semisentient has the right idea. The "box" he's talking about is a hushbox -- an enclosure to tone down the hair-dryer noise that the 7? 8? fans in your XG makes. Trust me, I have an XG 852, and you WANT a box around the thing.


Since you enclose it, you have to vent it. You hook up a thermostat to exhaust the heat when the pj is on.


In your case, you could very easily also add in an electric heater on the bottom of the box. The box will be insulated (to absorb the noise), so it will be very efficient to heat just that small space. Set the thermostat on it at, say, 60deg or so, and your XG will stay toasty until you're ready to watch.


Gary

 

[jnjloo]

hmm..... hushbox, sounds like what I need. I'll have to check into that, and maybe modify the idea to what I need. Ok, now all I have to do is get the house, and not have to fixate on what to do with the ht IF I can get the house.

thanks guys

dan

 

[jnjloo]

anyone know what temp to have it turn on when it gets too hot?? just curious

dan

 

[penticton102]

Quote:

Originally posted by ecrabb First of all - CRT coolant is usually mostly ethylene glycol - which is practically antifreeze. Freezing isn't so much the concern, I'd think. It's wasting a 1000 square feet of a house all winter long - the perfect time to be watching movies! I don't think it would cost you much at all to hold that part of the house at 45 or 50 degrees unless the insulation is really poorly done. You could use a set-back thermostat to hold that cold temp all week, raise it to comfortable levels on Friday night, and return to cold temp point after 10pm on Sunday night or whatever. You'd get major savings and not worry about the equipment - and best of all, you'd still be able to use the room. My whole house is 1200 sq. ft + a basement and my January bill (sub-zero at night) was $120 or so. I would imagine you could heat the room the way I mentioned above for $30 or 40/mo. SC

the tubes is not what i was talking about , its the condensation on the boards,heatsinks, and what ever else gets hot which could short the whole works out, better be safe than sorry ............

 

[penticton102]

p.s i had a 50 inch t.v. upstairs which crapped out because of moisture in the set, thats in my living room never mind a barn/garage type of building, however its not my call.............

 

[jnjloo]

hey pentiction102,

I hear you, but there's two things to consider I'm thinking, and you can correct me if I'm wrong about it.


First I'm thinking that if the pj's kept at a standard temp of 60 or so in a "hush box", there's not much condensation going on, as for condensation you'd need a larger temp variance.


secondly, though it will still condensate, montana is not known for it's humidity, so would not be as bad a florida or texas or somewhere if left outside.


maybe I'm missing something, and let me know if I am, and thanks as always for the replies

dan

 

[Curt Palme]

Two scenarios I'll throw out.


1) My own HT gets used maybe an hour a week. I leave the thermostat in the room off, and it's in the basement of a house. It gets down to about 50 degrees when the door is closed after a few days, then a couple of hours before I go watch it, I turn the heat up. I've had about 6 different makes and models up there, with nary an issue.


2) I just lugged a couple of high end projectors in from storing them outside for 6 weeks. Sub freezing temperatures, and one of the units poured water out of it when I lifted it up from outside the garage (they were both parts units, no, no-one is going to buy them..)


I left them inside in 65 degree temperature for 48 hours, powered both up, they ran fine. Now mind you, this was short term storage, but it was interesting to see no problems with either after being outdoors under simple tarp for 6 weeks..



I'm sure you will be fine.

 

[digital_dilemma]

If you build a hush box, if you don't want to install fans, plan it out right so that air can come in from underneath the projector from all around it. Natural convention will start a draw of air to feed the projector and the warm air will move out through the front. Mine is installed in a custom coffee table that has the top come off for servicing the projector and the front of the table opens up when the projector is on. The base has weep holes built in to allow the air from the floor to be sucked in from the fans of the projector and all the hot air comes out the front. Very efficient and very quiet, too.

 

[penticton102]

Quote:

Originally posted by jnjloo hey pentiction102, I hear you, but there's two things to consider I'm thinking, and you can correct me if I'm wrong about it. First I'm thinking that if the pj's kept at a standard temp of 60 or so in a "hush box", there's not much condensation going on, as for condensation you'd need a larger temp variance. secondly, though it will still condensate, montana is not known for it's humidity, so would not be as bad a florida or texas or somewhere if left outside. maybe I'm missing something, and let me know if I am, and thanks as always for the replies dan

curt has the exsperience and the knowledge on the do,s and don,ts re; electronics and i would not be in a position to question his expertise however, with my 50 inch rptv all what it took was a drop of moisture on the power supply board on the tv which cooked it (twice) the second time it happened i did not want to participate in another 700$ replacement board so i parted the set out, just relating what happened to me with moisture issues and electronics with a rptv......

 

[garyfritz]

digital_dilemma, I'd be astonished if you could cool an XG hushbox with convection. Those things pump out something like 700-800 watts of heat. Plus if you leave holes open for convection, you let sound out. XG's are noisy beasties. You want them closed up as well as you can manage. Lots of people totally enclose the box, with optical glass in front of the lenses.

 

[penticton102]

p.s with my 1271q and my experience with my(or x) rptv i make damn sure the condensation is not an issue..........

 

[Mark_A_W]

-40C????????? No way...that's like Antartica!


I don't believe you, take a photo of a themometer and all the frozen, umm, well, everything next time it gets that cold!


I think it got to freezing here once, maybe. You guys are nuts living up there in the freezing cold northern hemisphere


(Yes, I can drive for 3 hours and go snowboarding in winter - even in the mountains -8C overnight is the coldest it'll get).


I can't even imagine driving to work with snow in a city - snow is for ski resorts - with chains and all that.


-15C at Big White in Canada is the coldest I've been out in - and my Missus started to get hypothermia when the chairlift stopped - had to get her back and into a hot bath, then I went out boarding again, of course.


-40, my mind boggles.