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Climate control for xmtr site

I'd have to disagree with you there.

It's not so important the temperature of the air as making sure you have plenty of volume of air flow.

That's why it's more important to have both intake and exhaust on the same side of the building (separated of course).

That way pressure from a strong wind against that side of the building will be equalized into both the exhaust and intake and will have minimal effect on air flow.

If the exhaust was on the opposite side of the building from the intake, there is a possibility that a strong enough wind against the exhaust side could bring the air flow through the system to a standstill.

That's particularly true if using fans rather than blowers. Fans don't stand up to back pressure nearly as well as blowers.

Mike


> Another couple cents thrown in.... I just shake my head when
> entering a site for the first time and see the exhaust fan
> blowing the air through the wall vent - and it's mounted on
> the NORTH side of the building, sucking in all that nice
> warm SOUTH side air. It's very easily overlooked but try to
> remember to mount the exhaust fan on the SOUTH side and pull
> in the cooler NORTH side air.
 
> 2 portable a/c units rated for 10k-12k btu @ 10 amps each
> would give me the 20k-24k btu of cooling for about $400
> each. Saves me the trouble of running duct work or cutting
> a hole in the wall...plus we can trade out the a/c units.
>

I wouldn't go with window units. I've been researching this for one of my stations and the window units can't handle the constant cooling needs of a transmitter room. The condensers ice/frost up and die...sometimes killing the A/C permanently, sometimes just taking it offline until the frost melts (by that time the interior temp has rocketed back up to 100+ degrees).

Plus if you're in an area with wintry weather part of the year, you really have to take in the window units; if left outside the coils don't react well to being frozen like that. On some cheaper units they'll split and bye-bye any cooling power.

I view window A/C not unlike those little generators people buy for their houses in case of the power going out when there's a storm. Those gennies are rated for X number of hours and that's it. That's fine when you're only running 'em for 12 hours at a time, maybe for two or three days, tops. But that X total is maybe 1000 hours - and that's barely 40 days when you're running 24/7 like a transmitter room essentially requires. Window A/C units are not dissimilar; run them 24/7 and they'll croak within few months even under the best of conditions.

Something else to chew on...you mentioned the transmitter is old and therefore inefficient. Adding A/C to a transmitter shack is a major undertaking and thus most be viewed over the long term. More than likely, a transmitter replacement will occur within the operational lifetime (10, 20, 30+ years) of any A/C system installed today...and that transmitter could very well be HD Radio-equipped. Any HD Radio-equipped transmitter will barf and die if it doesn't have a nice ambient temp of about 70 degrees or so. Those things are essentially Linux computers and they need to be in "server room" like environments to last more than a week.

Even if it's not HD Radio and is some other digital transmitter system, it'll largely be computer-based and have similar cooling needs.
 
Snipped>
> So, when I replace this with our brand-spanking new FM25T
> next week, I'm having the building completely reducted and
> vented...and rewired!
>
> Ahhh...inheriting stations is such a thrill!
>
Good lord, a window A/C for a 25kw box? Best of luck with the install.

Lane
 
> Um. What?
>
Well I'll gladly address anything that's unclear...I typically have a stream-of-consciousness style of writing that makes for confusing posts sometimes.

What in particular were you asking "what" about?
 
> What in particular were you asking "what" about?

What concerns me the most is your reference to IBOC-capable transmitters running Linux. Hopefully it was nothing more than a simile because ibiquity would be obligated to release their version per the license.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
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