I have been trying to figure out how to deal with the high temperature in the man cave for some time now. The room is pretty well insulated with concrete on three sides, so when my equipment generates heat it seems to stay in here.
I have made a thermostat for my extraction fan, so I at least can keep it below 75 F. Even when all the lights are off and I am not in the room the fan runs periodically with the thermostat set for 73 F. Running an AC or duct-less ventilation system seems a bit overkill, so I've been trying other things. So far I have replaced all lights with LEDs and florescent, and bought new low power LED computer screens.
Today my computer got a major overhaul:
* Replaced high-end gaming graphics card with a cheaper fan-less one, hey; I don't game anyways. And it's less noise. Saves up to 100 W.
* Replaced my 11 year old power supply unit with a new and more efficient model, also reduced the noise a lot.
* Replaced the CPU heat sink with a bigger one with also less fan noise.
The change is drastic, the noise is heavily reduced and the temperature is much lower. So far, with everything on I got 71 F.
Now to see how it behaves over time.
I've attached an image of my 11 year old power supply unit, this might have contributed to it getting warm...
Also last weeks temperature graph, the sawtooth shape is caused by the thermostat controlled fan. The really big trailing edge is when I left the fan running all night. Sensor #1 is in the middle of the room and #2 is located on the computer rack.
Now; a cigar to celebrate today's achievements