Ceiling fan advice... yeah, that's what it says!

Shadowhaxor

Limp Gawd
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Jul 15, 2005
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Morning HardForum Fam!

So I recently moved into a new house and with that came the disassembly of my small but awesome office and moving it to the new house. So while most of that is done I've ran into an issue; cooling or lack of.

My previous office was in the basement of my old house, so I was surrounded by cold but protective mortar. In the new office I have a nice 13 x 9 room on the 1st floor, the basement is there but it hasn't been finished and we likely won't start that until next (Curse you lack of money) so I'm looking for some advice here. I know that the ceiling fan in this room may have been enough for the previous tenants but I run a 2-3 PC shop with 3 monitors at all times and even with the central air (which is a completely different story... POS) this room has issues staying cool.

I measured the fan today since I was oblivious to the fact that the ceiling fan may not be enough to cool the room with all the equipment in there. Now the only reason I'm asking is more than likely I'm not the only person who encountered this issue.

Likely looking at a 52 inch ceiling fan with either a remote control or wall mount switch. 52 inch may be overkill normally but in this instance is I think that's what I need.
 
First, are you trying to cool people or equipment or both?

A ceiling fan doesn't make the air cooler, it works by accelerating evaporation of sweat on your skin which makes your skin loose heat faster. Good for people, but does nothing for computing equipment.

If you want to keep both equipment and people cool, then you have to lower the ambient temperature. The easiest way to do that is to move the heat outside with an air conditioner. You can usually find spot air conditioner or a wall unit to help move the heat outside. Be sure you have enough power to run such a thing, and make sure the hot air gets exhausted outside.
 
First, are you trying to cool people or equipment or both?

A ceiling fan doesn't make the air cooler, it works by accelerating evaporation of sweat on your skin which makes your skin loose heat faster. Good for people, but does nothing for computing equipment.

If you want to keep both equipment and people cool, then you have to lower the ambient temperature. The easiest way to do that is to move the heat outside with an air conditioner. You can usually find spot air conditioner or a wall unit to help move the heat outside. Be sure you have enough power to run such a thing, and make sure the hot air gets exhausted outside.

Since there's no server equipment in this room and the Pc's are cooled enough, my concern is cooling for the people, mainly me since I work from home in this room. Sadly my windows don't allow for me to add an window unit air conditioner and if need be I'll need to get a portable AC, completely forgot about those.
 
If you are going to permanently keep this as your office, you may want to have an A/C technician do an assessment of your airflow to the room. They might be able to modify the baffling in your ducts and provide more airflow to that room in addition to having a good fan.
 
Since there's no server equipment in this room and the Pc's are cooled enough, my concern is cooling for the people, mainly me since I work from home in this room. Sadly my windows don't allow for me to add an window unit air conditioner and if need be I'll need to get a portable AC, completely forgot about those.

Then in that case I'd go hit up your local hardware or home improvement store. You should be able to find a decent ceiling mounted fan for about $50-80 USD. If there is already an electrical junction for an overhead light, then installation is super easy. If you need a junction box and wiring installed, then it gets a bit more complicated. I usually consult an electrician in the case of needing wiring installed personally.

Make sure there is about 12-14 inches of room between the fan blades and the ceiling, otherwise the effectiveness of the fan will be severely reduced since it has to fight the suction for the small air gap above it.
 
Then in that case I'd go hit up your local hardware or home improvement store. You should be able to find a decent ceiling mounted fan for about $50-80 USD. If there is already an electrical junction for an overhead light, then installation is super easy. If you need a junction box and wiring installed, then it gets a bit more complicated. I usually consult an electrician in the case of needing wiring installed personally.

Make sure there is about 12-14 inches of room between the fan blades and the ceiling, otherwise the effectiveness of the fan will be severely reduced since it has to fight the suction for the small air gap above it.

There's already a fan in here, just way too small for the room, measuring about 36 inches which is not enough. Currently in the search of a functional fan. Would love one of those "Big Ass Fans" that you see at Ikea ;)
 
A 52" fan will make a significant improvement over the current 36" fan. About $100 or so would get a decent model.
 
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