I have mounted a 32" LCD TV on my living room wall with stereo components, DVD, cable box inside a small 3' X 6' closet which is located directly behind the TV. It's a very clean set up with no wires showing. I have installed 2 wire rack shelves in the closet for the components and to aid in ventilation.

Now for my question. The cable box throws off quite a bit of heat and I'm concerned it may get too hot with the door closed during the day. Is this a valid concern? The receiver also gets hot but it would never be unattended when it's on and the closet door could also be opened.

Would SAT have been a better choice? Do the SAT boxes get as hot?

Any thoughts?

All hd boxes seem to get hotter than no hd, sat or cable. Is anything sitting on top of it? Turn it off when your not at home.

Is there anywhere for this heat to go?? Is there any fresh cool air coming in??

Whats above the room? If you can vent into the Attic, put a small fan in the ceiling. There should be enough of a gap at the bottom of the door to let air in. This will allow for some air movement to help with the heat.

Try this as a solution to your problem?

http://www.cool-components.com/

Sometimes it helps just to get air moving, especially given that you only have one real heat generating component (cable receiver) in the closet. Middle Atlantic makes a small, hockey puck sized fan device that can be set right on top of the cable receiver and might really help your situation:

[Link: middleatlantic.com]

We're at the point where we are budgeting for cooling/ventilation for equipment stacks in all of our bids. And if ventilation requirements are greater, we recommend that they deal with an experienced HVAC contractor who knows a thing or two about properly ventilating an A/V closet/stack. We've worked with an HVAC company lately that has been installaling Panasonic in-line ventialation fans...they are incredibly powerful and quiet:

[Link: plumbersurplus.com]

Turning a cable or sat box off will not reduce the heat output much, only if you unplug them.
Any heat source in a small closed area will eventually heat that area to close to the temp of the heat producer. You need ventilation, a way to bring in cool outside air and to exhaust the hot air. I haven't used Cool components so I don't know much about them, always used Active Thermal Management products. You can put a vent grille at the bottom and top of the closet door or louvered doors will work. Or mount the fan in the basement and cool the room via a duct.
Check out http://www.activethermal.com/

Too bad you didn't have an issue with a hot girl in the closet. That would be so much more interesting...

Thread Steel. (Drunk Thread Steal. :-)_) Is this the Custom Installer lounge?

Dave

This is were the 'lounge' comes into play ;-)

I thought the same thing when I first read the title!

Roddy, I owe you a beer!

If you have an air conditioning feed duct nearby, DON'T use it, because it will be a heat duct during the winter.

If you put a grille in the door near the floor, and another up high on the door, that would allow some convection cooling.

Whoever said you could turn off the cable box just wasn't thinking. Cable boxes and satellite receivers, some of which also run hot, don't go off when you turn them off. Only their video output goes off, and on some of them, it doesn't actually goes off, it goes black...so there is still a video signal present, it's just black.

Olinmurphy,

You need to create a fresh air intake and a hot air exhaust to some point.

Exhausting it into the attic may not work if your attic gets really hot in the summer.

If the fan isn't running, heat will poor down into the closet.

ATM ofers some great solutions.

Some creativity may be required.


Dave,

Is that better? ;-)

Mike.

Ces or Cedia next year...

Cedia.

Ces has gotten out of hand.

Yes, but it is in Vegas a couple of days after my birthday. Plus all the other entertainment at the sands it worth it. Its only a 4 hour drive for me too.