cooling the motor

S

sethsacc

New member
I am building a closet for my 1800 using open insulation and rockwool. I vent to the outside through insulated HVAC duct. I am wondering how to cool the motor. I know that those of you who vent air back into the shop use the chimney baffle like in Ed's video which also helps to cool the motor. The corner where I am putting the closet already has an unused 4" dryer vent opening to the outside of shop located at the top of the closet. Would this be enough to allow air to circulate? Also would the hot air exhaust through this opening or would outside air come in, or would the two fight eachother therefore requiring a second vent?

thanks,
Seth
 
I don't think one vent would do both. Is the area the motor will be in in the attic? If so, are there soffit vents for attic ventilation? Again, if so, then your return air will come from them. Heat will rise out the top. Is there a ridge of turbine vent for the attic? Heat will escape from it/them. This is how my set up is. My motor is about 4" from the crest of the roof. I do plan to put a fan of some sort pointing at the motor, and wire into the switched outlet that triggers my contactor, so that the fan comes on when I turn the cyclone on. But so far, I've not had any problems without it. I haven't had the cyclone on for extended times yet...the longest time being about 20-25 minutes.
If you are in a basement, you'll need to devise some make up air, and possibly put an exhaust fan on the dryer ducting. A muffin fan would do just fine, doesn't need to be high cfm, just a gentle boost. Jim.
 
Last edited:
Cooling the motor

Cooling the motor

Seth,
If the bottom of the closet vents back into your shop the negative pressure in the shop (from the CV-1800) might pull enough air back thru the dryer vent to cool the motor. You would need to get rid of the flapper on the vent and of course you need much more return air opening somewhere to handle the volume. Also, be careful you do not pull dusty air back in. My system heats the Wart (and the shop) quite warm but I have not had any problems with the motor. I've done nothing special to cool the motor.
bababrown
 
Thanks guys,
Good point about pulling the dust back in. The dryer vent is only four feet from the CV exhaust. Sounds like Jim's idea of an exhaust fan in the vent would do a good job of moving air past the motor and keeping the dust out. Would a vent on the bottom of the closet with a baffle going up towards the top be good for the intake and what size would be big enough?

Seth
 
Cooling The Motor

Cooling The Motor

Seth,
I'm still a little confused on your set up. You need to replace the air in the closet while the unit is running. There are at least two ways to do that. One is to use a fan in the closet to blow air out (best at the top) with an opening down low to let outside air back in. The second way is to let the CV-1800 draw air from the closet thru an opening into the shop and to replace the closet air with a vent on the outside. In that second case it would be best to use Ed's chimney idea to pull the hot air from the top while the outside vent could be down low. I would make the return air vent several times the area of the 8" exhaust pipe; at least 1 square foot so there is very little pressure loss. That return duct does not have to be all in one place; you can use multiples.
bababrown
 
Well, maybe I'm confused...If he is exhausting outside, then the make up air needs to go to the shop the cyclone is pulling air from. The closet could be sealed off and be of no consequence. Now if it's not sealed off, then yes, air will try to come in the pipe and find it's way back to the shop to make up for the air leaving via the cyclone.
If you go the route of the fan on the dryer duct, having a flapper on it would be a good thing. In fact, having a flapper on your exhaust would be good also. I've got my 8" exhaust split to two 6", with louvered vent covers on them. Look just like the 4" dryer exhaust vents.

It just hit me....you need air to replace what goes out the dryer vent. DOH!!!! (coupled with a nice head slap) If a muggin fan is used, I'd think the flow would be so low, that with the closet not sealed, it would get plenty of make up air. Remember, you just need enough flow to expel some heat. If you have an old computer power supply, you could use that with a computer cooling fan.
Jim.
 
Last edited:
For a switched exhaust fan to cool around my motor, I plan on using a small blower from a power vented water heater that I recently had replaced. You can probably get a used one for free from a water heater installer's junk yard.
 
Last edited:
Sorry for the confusion. I have a walkout basement shop. I am installing the cyclone in a corner where adjacent walls are below grade and building a closet (adding two other walls) for sound control. I will be exhausting the cyclone outside so I do not need an air return to the shop. I will be replacing the shop air with open window or door. After realizing that by not using filters and filling the closet with air then returning it to the shop I needed some way to cool the motor. In the upper corner where the cyclone will be is an unused dryer vent to the outside.I figured that this would be useful for cooling. Because this vent goes through the same wall (only four feet away) as the cyclone exhaust duct I don't want dusty outside air returning to my shop through the closet so I will use it for exhausting the air that will cool the motor (by incorporating an exhaust fan that is wired to the cyclone remote) and add a intake vent at the bottom of the closet one of the two inside closet walls (pulling air from the shop) for a new air supply to the closet. I thought that adding a chimney baffle would help reduce the noise that would enter the shop through this low intake vent. I guess I am confused about the chimney operation, I just assumed that the air would enter the intake and go up the chimney (with the negative air pressure created by dryer vent exhaust fan). Is this not the case? Do I even need the baffle for noise since the intake is down low? Also since I am just using these closet vents for cooling the motor wouldn't a small intake vent work (like 6x6 inches for example)?

Seth
 
Cooling The Motor

Cooling The Motor

Seth,
Sounds to me that you have it right. A small vent at the bottom is fine to just handle the closet. If you exhaust the air at the top with a fan I doubt you need the chimney. The warm air will rise and be pulled out by the fan. I'm not sure that it helps with noise. I have an open window at the bottom for return air and noise is not a problem.
bababrown
 
I don't think you need a baffle for the intake. If equal in size to the 4" duct, there won't be any noise. If too small, it might whistle. The baffle makes most sense when exhaust air is coming from the filters back to the shop, because it's moving pretty fast, and it will carry the noise from the impeller. That's the noise you want to eliminate as much as possible. Jim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top