Ceiling mounted projector over heating with new insert in LR

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K

KB007

Minister of Fire
Oct 21, 2009
553
Ottawa, Canada
Not sure if this belongs here, but here goes.

Since we installed our Regency I3100 in our livingroom, I now have a little problem with the ceiling mounted HD projector over heating from all the wonderful new heat. Course this won't be a problem in the summer, but with the last few days of burning in the winter, it was. The projector is an Epson HC6100 LCD. House is a bungalow, so attic is directly above the LR. With a good fire going in the insert and the PJ on, it takes about 2 hours for it to overheat. Since the insert will be running 24/7, this will be a problem watching anything much on TV or movies :( This room is our main living room and home theater combination and we spend most of our time in that room.

Room is a 16 X 20 with the projector mounted on the centre line of the 20 ft length. It's mounted on the ceiling about 3 ft to the right of the insert centre line. This puts the projector about 13 feet back from the screen on the ceiling. I could move it back to the back of the room, but it would still be about the same distance from the insert centre line. Room is a normal, 8 ft -ish ceiling. Because of the layout of the room, I can't move the projector anywhere else, nor more the screen (100" fixed mount) nor move the hearth.

I'm thinking of building some kind of box around the PJ and trying to vent (or pull) air to from the attic with some small fans, possibly one to suck cold air down from the attic and one to blow hot air back into the attic. Would this screw up the insert air in any way?

Anyone have similar problems??
 
Have you considered a ceiling fan or other way to simply bring the hot air down from up there and mix it into the room better? Likely this would bring the room temp up as a whole if you mix the relatively cooler air lower in the room.

If you were to go the route of boxing the fan and venting into the attic I would be concerned about condensation etc if you pulled seriously cold air into your "box" from the attic and/or allowing warm moist air into the attic.
 
There really no good way to mount a ceiling fan of any kind given the height and distance from other walls. That would be too easy...
 
How about a wall mounted oscillating fan? Something in that room to mix up the air up there with the air closer down may go a long way to help is what I'd want to try. Simple test may be to prop a box fan pointed up for a while and just see if that makes any difference (easier than bothering with any mounting etc). If it works then proceed on this line - if not, then back to the drawing board...
 
If it was easy, anyone could do it. We don't have a ceiling fan in the living room, but use a pedestal fan in the summer months. Do you have room for one of those; you could point it upwards to move the air from the ceiling in the winter months.
 
A ceiling fan seems to be the easy solution, but you say you ceiling height is too low? Fans are mounted on 8 foot ceilings regularly with short down rods. What is the difference in the heat at ceiling level compared to what is was before. A plus 20 or 30 degrees? Contact the tech department manufacturer of your projector. Surely, others have had a similar issue (overheating). In the meantime, get a floor fan with a swivel case and set it under the projector (pointed up).
 
I could try to setup a small fan on the opposite side of the room from the insert (which is where the windows are) and would I blow at the projector (which happens to be at the direction of the insert)?

Can't set anything directly under the PJ as that's where the couch is.
 
There is heat stratifying at the ceiling level. To stir it up, I'd take a standard 12" table fan, put it on the floor at the entrance to the room and point it upward to the ceiling. Run it on low speed, blowing the cool air from outside the room, upward into the room. As a side benefit you will find the cooler area of the house warming up.
 
I think the only option you have is take out projector. Put it in a box and send it to me. Dont worry I'll pay the shipping. On a serious note my 52 inch will over heat with the stove on and will turn itself off. I've been told some of the tv makers used faulty solder causing them have proplems.
 
most ceiling mount projectors are to close to the ceiling for a ceiling fan. the fan would get in the way. making a box with a small computer case fan would be the solution to this problem. just make the fan blow exhaust out of the box around the projector with a small 1.5 inch hole in the ceiling with a paper towel roll for the tube thru the insulation and that would pull the cool air across the projector. let the heated air come out into the room. helps heat the house. bulb on my 50 inch raises the room temp 2 to 3 degrees all on it's own. here is the but
when the stove is not in use you'll have to take the box off so it would not pull down attic air in the spring, summer and fall. summer will get like 130 degrees and even on a summer night the attic will have 90 degree air because of the houses body heat. wouldn't cool down up there til 4:00 am. even in spring or fall the outside temp my be 60 but if you go up in that attic it will be 90 up there
 
FWIW, we have had no issues with our projector overheating when the stove is running and we have no ceiling fan, just the little ecofan puttering away. Our projector is on a shelf about 24" from the ceiling. It's a Panasonic PT-AE2000U. Maybe lower the projector down if it's right up against the ceiling?
 
We found putting a fan in the dining room, blowing into the LR, did a great job of evening things out. Maybe that could work for you, and it's non permanent..
 
Thanks for all the suggestions - gives me some ideas for what to do come fall.

Think I'll start with a fan, see if moving the air will help, if not I'll be building some sort of box. If I do that, I'll try to get a fan that I can trigger with the 12V trigger on the PJ and pull air down from the attic if necessary. Maybe figure out some way to easily mount / remove the box for summertime.
 
If you were super handy, I wonder if there was some sort of peltier cooling you could look into.
 
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