Venting a PC through an exterior wall?

shrike126

shrike126

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So, I live in Colorado and have a house that doesn't have Central A/C. This is probably a thing we'll add a year or two from now. But I live at elevation, up around 8,500 ft so even during the summers it rarely gets very hot.

For now though, the one room that consistently gets warm is my office and gaming setup where running my PC playing games after an hour or two seems to raise the temperature in the bedroom by like 10 degrees. It kinda sucks.

So I was curious if anyone has any experience in putting in a vent in a wall that is attached to the exhaust of a PC case? In my head it would be something like a smaller version of a dryer exhaust vent with a screen over the outside end.

It would help to not have to deal with a window unit which would be great, I'd like to be able to open the window from time to time without having to fuss with a window unit exhaust pipe being in the way.
 
That’s a bit drastic, isn’t it? My concern would be condensation in winter months and a potential pneumonia hole if it isn’t sealed properly.

My office gets pretty hot as well, so I installed a ceiling fan and use a fairly quiet Frigidair window unit on low. Then again my office has double windows, so I still have one full window free if desired.
 
Lazy8s said:
That’s a bit drastic, isn’t it? My concern would be condensation in winter months and a potential pneumonia hole if it isn’t sealed properly.

My office gets pretty hot as well, so I installed a ceiling fan and use a fairly quiet Frigidair window unit on low. Then again my office has double windows, so I still have one full window free if desired.
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Yeah it's a little drastic. Which is why I haven't put a hole in the wall already. The alternative though is either deal with the heat in the office, or install a window unit which sort of limits me being able to use the window. I just have the one window right now.

Is this just a thing no one else really thinks about or notices? Or is this just a thing I notice because we have a house without Central AC?
 
For those of us who do any coin mining at home, Curio I’m looking in your direction, was that just piping heat out through a window or use a window unit to cool the room and that’s that?
 
I've installed a dryer vent before. Not the easiest thing in the world to do it at all, let alone getting it looking good. Not impossible though.

More to the point You'll be attaching a shroud to your system (on the 120mm fan hole?) to vent out from and all the other bits are pushing in? You'll need a lot of pressure depending on how long the tube is, how much rise there is, etc.


Or is this just a thing I notice because we have a house without Central AC?
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Well, that does make a difference, but yes, my office is warmer than the rest of the house much of the time if I leave the door closed.
 
koralis said:
I've installed a dryer vent before. Not the easiest thing in the world to do it at all, let alone getting it looking good. Not impossible though.

More to the point You'll be attaching a shroud to your system (on the 120mm fan hole?) to vent out from and all the other bits are pushing in? You'll need a lot of pressure depending on how long the tube is, how much rise there is, etc.




Well, that does make a difference, but yes, my office is warmer than the rest of the house much of the time if I leave the door closed.
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I already have a 3D printed shroud to attach to the back of the PC case’s 120mm fan, which would push the hot airflow through whatever dryer vent tubing I attach, and out a run of maybe 1 ft (mostly rise over maybe a 6 inch run versus a 9 inch rise, give or take a half a foot either way), to get to the wall outlet/vent.

There’s not much distance between my office and the living room, so I do try to keep the door closed.
 
shrike126 said:
I already have a 3D printed shroud to attach to the back of the PC case’s 120mm fan, which would push the hot airflow through whatever dryer vent tubing I attach, and out a run of maybe 1 ft (mostly rise over maybe a 6 inch run versus a 9 inch rise, give or take a half a foot either way), to get to the wall outlet/vent.

There’s not much distance between my office and the living room, so I do try to keep the door closed.
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Quite some time back I vented out a window. It was easy using a floor AC units window shroud like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/MOAOO-Portab...cphy=9002031&hvtargid=pla-1296826156940&psc=1

My PC was sitting below the window and I used a 4” flex pipe run to get to the vent kit mounted in the bottom of the window. It actually helped noticeably (PC was in the bedroom at the time) and I could still see out and / or open the window wide if I wanted to. Maybe something like that?
 
Lazy8s said:
Quite some time back I vented out a window. It was easy using a floor AC units window shroud like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/MOAOO-Portab...cphy=9002031&hvtargid=pla-1296826156940&psc=1

My PC was sitting below the window and I used a 4” flex pipe run to get to the vent kit mounted in the bottom of the window. It actually helped noticeably (PC was in the bedroom at the time) and I could still see out and / or open the window wide if I wanted to. Maybe something like that?
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Oh, you know what? I can just get a dual hose window seal unit for the gap and run the PC to one outlet and the portable AC unit to the other hose outlet (it just has one hose).

****. I’m an idiot. This is an obvious easy solution which still means I can’t just reliably and easily open the window but at least I’m not putting holes in the wall.

Thank you. I’ll give this a try for starters and see how it goes.
 
shrike126 said:
Oh, you know what? I can just get a dual hose window seal unit for the gap and run the PC to one outlet and the portable AC unit to the other hose outlet (it just has one hose).

****. I’m an idiot. This is an obvious easy solution which still means I can’t just reliably and easily open the window but at least I’m not putting holes in the wall.

Thank you. I’ll give this a try for starters and see how it goes.
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Hope it works for you :up:
 
Lazy8s said:
Hope it works for you :up:
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Yeah I was absolutely overthinking this. I forgot I could get a dual hose window seal. And they’re super cheap on Amazon so I’ll grab one of those. Hook up the AC and the PC to it. And see how that goes for a while. Thank you for the suggestion. At the very least, this will give me something temporary to try out during the hottest part of this summer just to see how much it helps before I decide whether or not I want to commit to drilling holes in the wall later on.
 
I had the same problem for years in my previous office space in this house. The previous office was in a finished attic room, and the central A/C just doesn't have the guts to push the air that high, very efficiently. It would easily exceed 80F in that room when gaming on the PC.

I thought of all the options you did as well, but in the end I just installed a window AC. The one I used was a cheaper unit and was loud as hell, but it cooled the room VERY fast and easily got the job done. I often had the room at 68F.

Since covid, I've been working from home and often on the phone with customers. I took a spare room in the house and made a new office, but was so fed up with how hot and loud the PC had been, that I didn't even want it in the same room as me any more. I actually ran the cables through the wall to the guest bedroom and the PC sits in there, with USB and HDMI cables passing through the wall via modified outlet covers. It's whisper quiet in here and comfortable, always.

Long story...but I wasn't sure if that was an option for you too. I feel your pain. It was annoying dealing with that.
 
I would just do a window fan unless it gets super hot then window AC. More often enough this just running all the time will keep the room cool enough especially if its cool outside already but just hot in the room due to the PC.



Lasko+5.27%27%27+Oscillating+Window+Fit+Fan.jpg
 
shrike126 said:
For those of us who do any coin mining at home, Curio I’m looking in your direction, was that just piping heat out through a window or use a window unit to cool the room and that’s that?
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I just had fans blowing out a window :lol:
 
Munkus said:
Any way you can vent the hot air from the PC out a nearby window? You'd have to use plexiglass or whatever to seal the rest of the window but still see out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/hdvgoy/venting_hot_pc_air_out_of_the_window/
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Personally I'd just grab the tube from a portable AC unit (think flexible dryer vent pipe) since it usually comes with a window block (you'll know what I mean when you see it). If you want to go really slick drop a 120mm (or whatever fits) PC fan at either end to help with the out air pressure / backpressure / draft ... whatever it's called.

And definitely look into a heat pump and/or A/C unit. The world is just going to get hotter and having one really helps with the resale value of the property. FYI the portables aren't as good, but they are useful and fairly cheap since you don't need to install anything. Just watch your BTUs vs your breaker box. 14k+ can cause issues with older (read 1970s and before) boxes since they have a decent draw spike when they 1st come on.
 
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