Venting design

[chowdan]

Hey guys,

I have been pondering the idea of venting my rig from outdoors. Its in the low 30's constantly and use my rig's heat to keep my apartment warm.

I have been thinking about building a closed system that draws air in from the outdoors, into a case that the miner is in, then vent into my apartment for fresh air(regardless of how cool/hot it is).

Regardless of figuring out how the fuck your going to get air into your apartment, but yet keeping the unit safe from thieves and the weather like rain and snow.....

How is the cold temperature going to effect the hardware itself? In the wee hours of the morning i would assume with the high moisture in the air(i live in Seattle) that dew will condensate either on the heatsink or on the boards themselves? If dew is a potential threat, anyone have any ideas on how i can combat it besides running a dehumidifier/ac?

I basically have a few concepts of how i will rig this up in my apartment, but before i do i need to make sure that the system itself wont generate dew(Heat + moist air + electronics = nothing good). I can't risk losing my investment or potentially creating a fire in my build. I do not have enough spare cash to deal with a situation like such either.

Anyways any ideas on this would be great!

[chowdan]

bump

[d2dtk]

Use something like a dryer vent with an addtional compartment/box that will help catch moisture and dust, then use the remaining dryer vent to the pc with a fan.

BOX:
               -----------
Air to PC<l      F        l
              l      F       l
              l      F       < Air from Outside
               --------- ---

F = Some type of filter/collector. I would let the air from outside be at the bottom so that moisture will collect at the bottom.


Now give me some coins for my design!! lol

[DeathAndTaxes]

Condensation can only occur when the surface is cooler than the dewpoint which isn't going to happen inside a high temp miner chassis.

[pletharoe]

DeathAndTaxes is right.  There are two temperatures you have to consider; the air temperature and the dew point.  You know what the temperature is, the dew point is the temperature at which the air is no longer capable of holding the moisture and it condenses.  The dew point cannot be higher than the current air temperature.

In short, the only way to get condensation is by COOLING, not heating.

[Smithlink]

Condensation can only occur when the surface is cooler than the dewpoint which isn't going to happen inside a high temp miner chassis.

What he said ^.
Think of your car after it is driven, there is no condensation on the hood unless you let it sit for an extended period of time.
This is because the hood temperature drops below the dewpoint, meaning the water can no longer evaporate faster than it condenses on the hood.
If you are running the outside air through the entire enclosure I would worry about condensation in cooler areas of the case.
If you could run the outside air over only the video cards you should be safe since they likely put out enough heat to keep a small enclosure above the dew point.