The new cabinet I just purchased has spaces to house 4+ AV components. I was surprised that the entire area is basically a sealed box. I drilled 5 2.5" holes in the rear of the cabinet for ventilation and to run cables. The problem is that my receiver is throwing off a hell of a lot of heat. When I have the volume set on what I consider normal listening, I can feel heat rolling out of the cabinet when I open a door.

So, before I cook anything in there that I care about I need some suggestions for fans. I don't want to rip out large sections of the rear of my cabinet. I think something like a PC style fan would be good to exhaust the air. The only problem with PC fans is that they are 12V DC. I need a fan that I can just plug into 110AC and then screw into the rear of my cabinet. It must be as silent as possible. Any ideas?

 

There are just as many fans available for 110vac as there are for 12vdc. It's very common for industrial cabinets to use 110vac fans for cooling.

If you're looking for silence, blower style fans typically move the most amount of air with the least amount of noise.

The best place to look for them is an industrial electronics shop (i.e. a place that sells electronic components such as resistors, transistors, IC's, etc.). There are also many online catalogs or even ebay that will sell them. I'm sure a quick will lead you in the right direction.

 

Thanks for the eBay suggestion. I found this . I like that its temp controlled but $60 seems pricey. I'll search around. If I can't find anything better I'll pick that up. It looks like it will work.

 

The teperature control is probably redundant. If you get fans that are quiet, with your cabinet doors closed, I imagine they'll be completely silent. I'd just keep them running all the time.

They've just taken two computer fans and used a small DC adaptor to power them. If you're having a hard time finding AC fans (which you shouldn't), you could always do the same thing as they have. A DC adaptor is going to be like $5. Just cut the end off of it, and attach it directly to leads comming off the fans. I'm sure you could build exactly the same thing as they're selling on ebay for less than $20 and it might take you 5 minutes to assemble.

 

Check out this guy. $3 for 12V fan, $4 for the 12 volt adaptor.

http://www.apexjr.com/new.htm

 

Thanks that stuff looks like a much better way to go.