Does this seem cool?

[jleger98]

Does this seem like it would keep things cool in the enclosed space in front of my console? Its a fairly small space, and its going to have two amps, a battery charger and a battery isolator. The blower will be on when there is power to the amps.

[spharis]

I've been thinking of making a hole into the walkway and putting an exhaust fan there, and leaving the bilge blower as is. I don't know how what you have there would work.

[lee]

You could run the blower and amps on a relay that would power up when the stereo is turned on. Just have the blower blowing across your amps and leave the fresh air stuff alone.

[spharis]

Lee is really on here. The amp is going to be way hotter operating than the ambient temperature in the compartment. The important thing is to provide a way to exchange the heat faster. Blowing air across the cooling fins is going to be almost as good in a 120 degree compartment, and bringing in air that is close to 100 degrees.

[dogbert]

Lee is really on here.

Yeah, he really lives up to his title

[jleger98]

I see your point. My thought was to exchange the air, and at the same time, by having the blower near the amps, pull the cooler air across the amps.

So you guys thing that just having a blower blowing on the amps would be enough?? without the air exchange?

[chpthril]

What if you moved the blower over to the fresh air duct and mounted it so it blew across the amps and take Spharis' idea and install a vent.

This will:
1..bring in fresh/cooler air
2..blow air directly across the hot stuff
3..exchange the air because the fan will create a high pressure area in the storage compartment and force air, hopefully hotter than what's coming in, out the vent.

[jleger98]

I guess my thought is that the "vent" would be the hose that goes to the bilge, but putting the blower on the other end might be the trick.

[Razzman]

How about mounting the fan in the exhaust mode? On a bulkhead or something where it's sucking the hot air out. Just like computers use, which get exceedingly hot and use the exhaust method. If there's a source for fresh air incoming across the compartment you might not have to blow air across the amps, just pull it out. That would make it easier wouldn't it?

[jleger98]

That was the original idea. The exhaust air would go into the bilge. I think SP's point was it would be better to blow air across the amps to keep them cool.

Now that I'm thinking about this, if the blower is not on, what keeps fumes etc from coming up from the bilge into the compartment? That could be bad. Gas fumes, eletronics.....nothing good could come out of that.

What about a vent in with the blower hooked to it, the blower blows across the amps, and there is an "out" vent. That might be the way to go eh?

[Razzman]

DUH! I wasn't fully awake posting and just took a second look at your drawing.

[spharis]

That was the original idea. The exhaust air would go into the bilge. I think SP's point was it would be better to blow air across the amps to keep them cool.

Actually that was an elaboration on lees one sentence post.

Now that I'm thinking about this, if the blower is not on, what keeps fumes etc from coming up from the bilge into the compartment?

The same thing that keeps it out from under the hood of your car and engine compartment: the weight.

Gas fumes are heavier than your standard air mixture so it sinks to the lowest point. Unless you have a super major leak, it will not get thick enough to do anything other than have a slight gas smell.

[jleger98]

oh yeah, sorry Lee. I might go for the vent thing anyway. the last thing I want is to have that compartment smell like gas when I gotta stick my head in there and change something.

[tarheeler]

what about when it rains, washing the boat, condensation whatever and it runs down the hose and moisture starts to build up in your electrical closet. maybe some rust.

[Jeff T]

Would amp fans that are available just about anywhere work? It would still keep your storage dry and move air across the amps. I've thought about doing this.