Layout room temperature

[Anonymous]

Humidity isn't much of an issue, because it's a finished room with heating/ac hooked up. Problem is, since my thermostat for the house is located downstairs, and this room is above the garage, thus far this year, during the winter months I recorded temperatures close to if not a little under the same as the rest of the house, but this summer, I'm seeing temperatures of around 80-85 degrees. I thought of adding another vent, or a larger duct going to the room, but that would be more than I'd really like to spend right now.

My question is, since I know alot of people deal with humidity and varying temperature issues in basements and garages, how would regularly having 80+ degree temperatures affect the electronics and electrical motors and such of the layout? I've heard that higher temperatures have negative effects on computer equipment, and I eventually plan to have my layout computerized. Any ideas of the effects of higher temperatures?

[nfmisso]

Electronic components will have slightly decreased life expectancy, but you alleviate that by using a fan to blow air on them, which will more than compensate.

Thermal expansion should not be an issue.

I suggest that in addition to small fans for your electronics, you get a larger fan to circulate air into the room from the rest of the house, put it on the floor in the door way to pull cooler air in from other areas of the house.

[rrinker]

80-85 is going to start getting unhealthy for computers, and downright uncomfortable for you and other people. Good example - my office is located on the third floor (finished attic) of our house. I have several computer in there. We have central air, and it blows good and cold - but being right under the roof, it gets too hot in here. I ended up putting a window air conditioner in to make it habitable for me duringthe day and kepe the computers alive. Of course, in the winter I have the opposite problem - the heat of the computers plus the heating system just won't keep it warm enough up here - that's when I grab the laptop and sit downstairs and work.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

That's exactly the problem I'm having. We have covenants in our community though that forbid window mounted a/c units on front windows of the house, so that idea's out, but my dad is a manager for a hvac wholesaler, so he may be able to get me what I need to blow more air through the vent. I may even go the route of adding a second smaller unit just to heat/cool that room if it comes down to it.

[jrbarney]

Jshrade,
I think I've seen small fans mounted in duct grill openings, behind the grill. I'm certainly no HVAC expert, but perhaps your dad knows if they are really of any use and could get you one. Of course, you still would have to route an electrical lead to the fan. Just a thought.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
P.S. Are there any dampers near the furnace/air handler ? Perhaps you can divert more conditioned air into the duct for your layout location. Again, your dad or one of his co-workers might be able to advise you.

[cacole]

At our HO scale clubhouse we have no heating or air conditioning except for portable propane heaters and evaporative coolers that are in use only when someone is at the clubhouse. Temperatures range from near freezing to over 100, and we have had no problems with track expansion/contraction, DCC systems, or computers.

I did lose a Rivarossi passenger car a few years ago from the early morning sun shining through a window and causing it to warp, but the heat and cold have had no ill effects on anything that I'm aware of, other than the people.

[Anonymous]

A couple of things:

First, jrbarney is right - In my old house I had a bunch of "booster" fans that mounted inside my ductwork to increase the force of air being blown through the duct. Pretty sure you can get them at Home Depot type places, although your dad may be able to get them at wholesale, being in the HVAC business.

Secondly, you said something about covenants and restrictions in your neighborhood about window AC units in the front... Are you able to put a window unit in the back all of the garage?

[jkeaton]

If you can't put a window AC unit in, there are freestanding AC units now available for this situation that need only a small, four inch vent pipe to the outside - most of them come with an adapter plate that lets you open the window, put in the adapter (which has a hole in it), close the window down to the adapter, then plug the four inch hose from the AC unit into the adapter. Plug the AC unit into the electricity and there you have it, instant cooling. These units are available up to at least 12,000 BTU, and are quite energy efficient (the vent pipe exhausts the heat and, on better models, the humidity outside, at EERs of 10 or so) and not visually obtrusive. My girlfriend, now my wife, had one of these in her top floor condo (which had covenants against window AC) and it cooled 800 square feet (including a sunroom) quite well.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks for the advice guys! I didn't know there were such things as the duct/vent mounted fan units available, and I will definitely have to look into that and the "windowless" a/c units that jkeaton described. My dad sells mainly to commercial contractors, so he may not actually be able to get the residential type a/c unit or duct fan, but I will ask him this weekend about the different options and suggest the ones ya'll mentioned. Thanks!

[chateauricher]

jshrade,

Presuming you're in the US, I did a search on homedepot.com and found this portable air conditioner for you ...
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc%2fsearchResults.jsp&BV_SessionID=@@@@0818357489.1116489312@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccchaddejhdijdjcgelceffdfgidgnl.0&MID=9876
While at $499, it is a bit expensive; but it solves the problem of the ban on window-mounted units. And at 9000 BTUs, it should be quite adequate at cooling your space.

Where I work, they have a portable a/c unit in a windowless basement room that houses the telephone equipment and computer servers. During the summer, it works very well at keeping cool an otherwise hot and stuffy room.

BTW, if they won't allow window-mounted units, would they allow through-the-wall units instead ? [;)] I know it may sound silly -- window-mount versus wall-mount; but if the covenant prohibits only window-mount a/c units, you might just have a loophole to exploit and save you a few dollars.

[leonardbrand]

Use motel type and hide behind stubs, how we handel same problem

[cwclark]

my problem is the heat, not the cold...I mounted a window unit in my trainroom that is therostatically controllable and the BTU rating is right on the mark for the size of room the trains are in..i keep the room at 73 degrees in the summer...in the winter it doesn't get too awefully cold in south Texas and a small space heater keeps the room plenty warm in the winter..i still try to maintain it at the 73 degree temperature year round...it's confortable for me and the train electronics at this temperature...Chuck

[Anonymous]

While I would love to get the in room air conditioner, $499 is quite a bit more than I want to spend... has anybody had any experience with the register mounted air boosters like this?

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc%2fsearchResults.jsp&BV_SessionID=@@@@2067549931.1116542546@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdjaddejhmldldcgelceffdfgidgmk.0&MID=9876

Something like that, or, for those of you who also have worked on cars, something like a compact auxillary electric fan that would mount directly to a radiator (in my case, to the grill assembly of the air register) would be ideal. I was just hoping to find one that would mount inside (out of view) of the grill. I also have high ceilings in my house, and it's really difficult to add an inline booster unit in the ductwork because of the difficulty accessing that room from the attic. I've checked the dampers on my unit in the attic, and everything is open like it should be. There's just a rather long run from the unit to the bonus room. That may also explains why my bedroom gets so warm in the summer and cold in the winter, but my wife likes it cold, so we just kick up the a/c in the summer and run the ceiling fan on high.

I don't currently have a ceiling fan in my layout room, but the room is wired up for one. Problem is, the fan would be directly over the center section of the layout, and I'm afraid the downdraft of the air from the fan would possibly blow around my scenery over time. Anybody else have a ceiling fan, or had experience with that situation?

[rrinker]

I don't think you'll have a problem with the fan blowing too hard - as long as you don't run it on high! Maybe as a safeguard, don;t put in a wall switch that allows the fan speed to be selected, just use a simple on-off switch, and set the speed on the fan itself - either low or medium, whichever works out.

--Randy

[StillGrande]

In our old townhome the air conditioner just could not cool the master bedroom as much as we would like in the summer. We put a small fan (some thing like $19) in front of the vent and it pulled all the cool air we could want up to that room on its lowest setting.

[MisterBeasley]

All the recent air conditioners we've put in our house, including the one in the train room, are permanently installed through-the-wall units. I'm not sure if community-related covenants cover these, but if not, they are an alternative to window units. They make fairly big ones that run on 110-volts, so you don't need to have an electrician around to install 220. They are permanently mounted, so you don't have to get 6 friends to help you drag them up from the basement to the attic every spring, and then back down in the fall. The newer ones come with remote controls, so you can mount them up high above doors, etc., or you can put them down low behind the shrubbery if that's your preference.