Cooling fan for electronics cabinet

Jim Shoe wrote:
Depending on whether you're using it for 120V AC or 12V DC, grab a bathroom ceiling fan from your favorite big box HW store or CW.

:h

Thats like driving a tank over a fly :S besides bathroom ceiling fans are often extremely noisy...

The OP is wanting to cool ELECTRONIC ITEMS in an SMALL ENCLOSED CABINET, not clear bathroom odors or humidity..

The OP is looking for small "muffin" fans AKA computer fans.

These fans can be had in various voltages, speeds and configurations to suit most any application.

You can find a good selection at ALL ELECTRONICS

You select the voltage, then take into consideration the noise level of the fan (45 DB is quieter than 46 DB), the CFMs moved (30CFM is more air than 25CFM) the fan speed (affects noise level, slower fan speeds like 2500 RPM will be quieter than 3500 RPM).

I would however recommend NOT using a fan to keep your electronics cool for several reasons..

1 Reliability, fans are mechanical and tend to fail at the worst possible moment and destroying equipment.

2 Noise, while you can find low noise fans, they still tend to make noise and the lower noise fans tend to not move as much are as the noisier fans.

3 Forget to turn on/off, these fans as is have no thermostat or way of automatically turning on/off. You would need to design or find some thermostat to do this for you otherwise you drain or use batteries (if 12V).

4 DIRT AND DUST, fans tend to pull ever speck of dirt and dust that is the air right INTO the electronic item your are attempting to cool.

5 See comment #1...

I would highly recommend changing the front of the cabinet to a louvered type of doors and skipping the use of a fan.