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Need help cooling a media room (1 Viewer)

Weebs210

Weebs210

Footballguy
Here is my problem, I have an upstairs media room that uses a projector which produces a decent amount of heat. When I have people over to watch red zone during the summer it can start to get decently hot in the room.

My upstairs a/c unit is a little under powered so I'm looking into some options to help out.

There is already a vent installed where I could funnel out the heat if I get a traditional portable unit with a vent. 

I've also looked into evaporative air cooler but I live in Houston and from what I've seen it's not ideal humidity conditions for those to be successful. 

If anyone has any recommendations that would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. 

 
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El Floppo said:
Is it an exhaust fan, or just a fan? Sounds like you need an exhaust fan to get rid of the heat, and then maybe something- fan or split ductless ac- to cool.
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I'm pretty sure it's just a regular fan. I will look into an exhaust fan, didn't even know that was a thing. Thanks.

 
Weebs210 said:
I'm pretty sure it's just a regular fan. I will look into an exhaust fan, didn't even know that was a thing. Thanks.
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It's the attic, so all the heat from your house is going there anyways. Add heat producing equipment and a bunch of people and you're playing with the fuoco, the flame, the fire.

 
In the cardio cinema at the gym, if they don't run the ceiling fans the projector overheats and breaks. There was one selfish dude who would circumvent the locks on the light switches and turn off the fans whenever he worked out - to get a better sweat going for himself, and then never turn the fans back on. He had no idea that the fans' main purpose was to dissipate the heat generated by the projector. I witnessed him do it three or four times and would always flip the fans back on after he left. I never confronted him. But this one time - oh man this one time - he flipped the switches while a woman was in there and she cussed him out royally. An epic cuss out. It was so great to witness, especially after he'd been personally sabotaging the equipment for everyone else all those times. She cussed him out good.

 
Describe your AC setup in more detail.  Do you have a whole house AC, window units, something else?  

The solution is to fix your AC, not these bandaid items everyone is spouting off.  Adding ductless on top of an existing AC unit doesn't make sense to me either

 
If you haven't upgraded that upstairs AC in a while, that might be the way to go.  Also, check out some better attic insulation.  (Also living in Houston.  We use Polar Air.)

 
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wilked said:
Describe your AC setup in more detail.  Do you have a whole house AC, window units, something else?  

The solution is to fix your AC, not these bandaid items everyone is spouting off.  Adding ductless on top of an existing AC unit doesn't make sense to me either
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Two story house with two separate a/c units. The downstairs is the correct power but the upstairs is slightly under powered (can't  remember the official term) and's been recommended to eventually upgrade. The problem is I'm not sure it's worth it to drop like 8 grand to upgrade just to help one room for 2 months of the year. As the rest of the house cools fine during those 2 months.

 
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:blackdot:   as I've been putzing around with same issues in basement -- dealing with slightly warm in the summer and multiple space heaters in the winter.  

I'm probably going to go ductless mini split now, too.   

 

 
Weebs210 said:
Two story house with two separate a/c units. The downstairs is the correct power but the upstairs is slightly under powered (can't  remember the official term) and's been recommended to eventually upgrade. The problem is I'm not sure it's worth it to drop like 8 grand to upgrade just to help one room for 2 months of the year. As the rest of the house cools fine during those 2 months.
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Ok... how big is house? Split evenly between up and down? How old is system? Can you sketch a floor plan and show how the ducting also?

Also when was last service on ac unit 

 
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Your projector heat will be from the bulb (99% of it).  Most bulbs are 300-400 watts

The average person puts off 100 watts.  

I am guessing you have 7-8 people in the room for red zone watching.  People are generating most of the heat, not your projector.  

You started with an assumption that your A/C system is undersized, I would challenge you to consider if maybe it is not working properly.  See my questions above.  Also, how often do you change your filters on your system?

 
wilked said:
Your projector heat will be from the bulb (99% of it).  Most bulbs are 300-400 watts

The average person puts off 100 watts.  

I am guessing you have 7-8 people in the room for red zone watching.  People are generating most of the heat, not your projector.  

You started with an assumption that your A/C system is undersized, I would challenge you to consider if maybe it is not working properly.  See my questions above.  Also, how often do you change your filters on your system?
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I was going to get back to you after I got all the info after work. I had a family friend ac mechanic service it recently. They were the ones who said it was under sized. Probably could change out the filters more often. 

House approximately 2,980 sq. ft.

The Upstairs Compressor (a 2 Ton Unit) was installed 07-28-2009, and the Evaporator Coil was replaced on 03-11-2008.

The 'Downstairs' Compressor (a 3 Ton Unit) was installed 05-26-2006, and the Evaporator Coil was replaced on 08-04-2004.

 
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Weebs210 said:
I was going to get back to you after I got all the info after work. I had a family friend ac mechanic service it recently. They were the ones who said it was under sized. Probably could change out the filters more often. 

House approximately 2,980 sq. ft.

The Upstairs Compressor (a 2 Ton Unit) was installed 07-28-2009, and the Evaporator Coil was replaced on 03-11-2008.

The 'Downstairs' Compressor (a 3 Ton Unit) was installed 05-26-2006, and the Evaporator Coil was replaced on 08-04-2004.
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5 tons for 3000 sq fr home sounds like plenty to me offhand 

 
I've been thinking about this.  Replacement of just one unit may not be an option.  If you still have units using freon, you may need to replace both and put in a new blower in the attic.  We had to when we got a new AC.  The may be a compatibility issue.  

Start saving.  It isn't cheap.

 
Weebs210 said:
That's the thing though. It's only that specific room. The rest of the house works perfect.
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It just really depends how far you want to go and how much you want to spend to make this work better. Adding a mini-split and replacing systems and adding ductwork costs a lot of money, especially when a portable system may work best for the few times a year when it becomes a problem.

If you decide to go the more permanent route, let me know. I am in the industry and we can break down your whole house - what you have now, how the room is set up, how your upstairs ductwork is run, how much cooling do you need up there, etc.

There are just so many questions that realistically need to be asked and answered to really give you a good solution. It just depends on how you want to solve the issue. If it's me, I would look at that upstairs system, maybe replace that system with a 2.5 ton. That way you could just dump the extra half ton of air into that room via a few more duct runs and add some return, provided you have attic space around that room to pull that off. That may cost you a tad more than installing just a mini-split to that room, AND solve the problem if that 2009 unit uses the R22 refrigerant that is being phased out after next year.

But before you buy ANYTHING, let me know so I can tell you if you are getting reamed or not.

 
@ChiefD Thanks for the information. I'm leaning towards a portable option for now. I will for sure take you up on your offer though if I do decide to do a more permanent route.

If I do a portable unit and set up a duct route am I able to route the heat exhaust to a storage room or is it recommended to only route it outside the house?

Thanks again.

 
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Weebs210 said:
That's the thing though. It's only that specific room. The rest of the house works perfect.
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If the whole house is fine and one room has an issue you need to increase supply (treated air) to that room. That could mean running a second duct to the room or ensuring you have no issue with existing duct. 

Heres some quick troubleshooting

-is the supply duct same size in this room as other similar rooms?

-have you changed the filter? 

-you have a return and a supply in this room, yes? Put a piece of toilet paper over the return grill when the system is running, does it suck up right? Compare against other rooms  

-get a ribbon or cut length of toilet paper. Tape to top of supply duct. Does it shoot out? Compare to other rooms. 

If your entire house is good except this room than you don’t need a bigger system, or a new ac system, you just need to if your air distribution within the house 

 
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