Keeping My Computer Room Cool With A/C

[ThaiLife]

I am using a small spare room on a daily basis for my computers ( and to shut the door to get away from the endless Thais soaps , with woman screaming, gun's going off, faces being slapped , angry fathers arguing with their kids and hospital music) This room is 2.8 mt x 3.8 mt with a ceiling height of 2.8 mt , one entrance door , one window measuring 1.3 mt x 1.4 mt

With all my computers running ( one iMac 24 inch with external monitor - one Acer PC tower and monitor - one Asus laptop and external monitor , one TV crt used as a security camera monitor , and various pieces of electrical equipment constantly running . the room gets pretty hot . As ive never had air conditioning of any sort before , I was hoping you guy's here could advise me .

The room is only used for my computers and a bit of storage and is in use most of the day , I would like to shut the door and sit in my own little fridge , the room is used only during non sleeping hours .

Ive spoken to a friend who had A/C installed for his bedroom, the installation engineer asked him where did he want the out side compressor placed , there were Two choices , one sitting directly on the ground , two mounted onto the wall.

The installation engineer commented that compressor units mounted directly onto a wall, could transmit vibrations through the wall and into the bed room , where as the unit mounted directly onto the floor ( via rubber feet ) would be less of a noise generator .

My friend went for the floor mounted option, but in hind sight he says that with the compressor mounted directly onto the floor , the compressor seems to drag in with its cooling fan more low level dust and dirt , but with a compressor mounted up higher up onto a wall, less ground dust and dirt would be sucked in by the compressor fan unit , and may require less cleaning and maintenance .

In the room the only electrical power available is Two twin wall sockets , there's no power available in the area of the rooms outside external wall .

I was all so wondering if its beneficial to insulate above the rooms ceiling area ( in the loft ) with some sort of insulation to try and prevent the heat in the loft area from being transmitted down through the rooms ceiling and into the room ( the rooms ceiling does some times feel hot ) .

Any suggestions , advice or comments on which route to go in choosing an A/C unit for my above situation , would be most welcome

Please don't suggest trying to turn off the TV when wife watches the Thai soaps , ive all ready tried that

Thanks TL :jap:

[InterestedObserver]

For starters you will need to find out exactly what electrical equipment is on the wall socket circuits and what size breakers there are. That will give you the available electrical capacity for the air conditioners. Others will give a recommendation for the BTUs needed to cool your computer room. From there you can decide what is the best plan. You may need to run a dedicated electrical circuit for the air conditioner(s).

Edited February 28, 2011 by InterestedObserver

[Beardog]

A 9000 btu unit should be adequate we use a 9000 in the bedroom that is 20 meters size & 3 meters high. You will need to install wiring (probable through the attic area & either run the wire in a exterior box for the wire & adhere it to the brick going to the switch & the air con unit. It would look better if it was recessed into the brick(if it is brick) so it doesn't show the wiring. Make sure whoever puts in the wiring to put the wire in conduit if it is the wall so you can pull new wires if needed.The breaakers & size you will need are for a 9000 btu & the 2nd one is for a 12,000

btu 2.5 mm2 cable - 20 amp maximum circuit breaker.

4 mm2 cable - 25 amp maximum circuit breaker.

There are other sizes of wiring but I doubt you will need more than a 12,000 at most.

I know what you mean by your internet room is your safe haven. I spend more time in the internet room than in the living room (due to Thai tv) when I am inside.

Without knowing the particulars on your present insulation it is tough to be exact. we have the silver foil & so far our aircon blows frost out. Way adequate.

We have our compressor mounted 2 & 1/ meters on the wall & it is perfect. There is no noise or vibration that we can hear. our sunlight fan makes more white noise than the compressor.And for the reason you mentioned it stays pretty clean not being in the way & on the floor-but I think that is more a matter of personal choice.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Beardog

[Crossy]

A REALLY quick-and-dirty calculation (used by HomePro) is "Floor area (in square metres) X by 600 gives you the size of the aircon (in BTUs)", your room is 10.6 Sqm so you'll need about 6400 BTU to cope with the weather.

Add to that the heat load of your IT kit, say 1kW (3500 BTU) and you get 10,100 BTU, a 12,000 BTU unit should do the trick. You may want to verify the power consumption (and thus heat load) of all your IT gear

2.5mm2 cable is good for 20A which would be fine for a 12k unit, but do check the manufacturers instructions.

[extexthai]

As far as heat coming down into your room....it doesn't happen. Heat always rises...the warmth you feel on that loft floor is from the rooms' ceiling underneath. If that is an issue, then by all means insulate the ceiling if you can get to it. And a compressor mounted on a wall can have the same rubber feet isolating it as if it were mounted on the floor. I have done a lot of anti-vibration construction stateside, from recording studios to isolating large generators and other heavy equipment. I do not know what is available here in LOS for that purpose, but probably available in BKK if one knows where to look for it. Good luck...ett

[ThaiLife]

Thanks to all for the replys, ive ventured out to the local Mall ( Power Buy ) and checked out whats currently available,

and it seems that this unit Mitsubishi ( SRK13CJV ) model , which is on a promotion price is possibly the best price / BTU deal

The Current rating of 4.9 Amps looks low , or am I missing some thing ?

The other brands available were Samsung and LG .

Any thoughts on the above please

Thanks