Is it better to exhaust heat or intake outside air to cool a room?

Question

I'm in a ~150sq ft room with a lot of electronics that are usually running (2 TVs, Xbox 360, PC, etc.). The biggest heat generator by far is the computer, which has many strong fans so it's fine, but I suffer from the heat that comes flying out of it. I've looked at several cooling options and have problems with each:

Central heating and cooling - Way too expensive at the moment.
Window A/C - Bugs will be able to get in through the window (it opens horizontally) and the room is on a main street so it will probably get stolen or damaged.
Portable A/C - I don't want to deal with the hassle of draining every few hours and potential leaks. Fans pointed at me - My eyes get dried out very quickly and start to burn within 10 minutes.
Ice Packs - Without a towel around them they burn, with a towel around them they aren't cold enough to cool me off.

I'm thinking of getting a window fan that I won't point at myself for the above reason, so the breeze alone won't be enough to keep me cool. I've been thinking of a few different ways I can use a window fan so it's the most effective at keeping the room cool and I've come up with 3 different ideas:

1) Point the window fan inward to bring cool air in then put my tower fan near the door pointed out of the room so hopefully the warm air generated by the electronics will be blown out into the rest of the house while cool air fills my room.

2) Point the window fan outside so the heat generated in the room will exhaust outside and the put the tower fan by the door pointed out so the hot air also exhausts into the rest of the house. I'm hoping this will keep hot air from building up in the room since it will be constantly exhausted out at two points.

3) Point the window fan outside and put the tower fan in front of the computer pointed toward the window so as soon as the computer exhausts the heat it gets sucked into the tower fan, blown toward the window, then blown outside before it has a chance to build up in the room.

I'm thinking exhausting the hot air might be easier than bringing in cool air, but I'm not sure, so hopefully someone with more knowledge on how heat moves could give me advice. Please share your opinions on which option would work the best, and any other things that I might be able to use to cool my room that don't have the problems listed above. Thanks.

And for reference the room is a rectangle with with the door in the top left corner, the window in the bottom right (this is also where my bed is, right next to the window) and the computer in the top right.

Answer 1

None of your options are really great. Outside air is hot during the day and cooler but humid during the night. By bringing in outside air, the humidity or he temperature of the room will increase, depending on the time of day.



An exhaust fan will also cause the same problem. All the air that leaves the room because of the fan must be replaced by air leaking in from the outside. If that didn't happen, the room would become a vacuum and the computer operator would die.



Any form of swamp cooler is not efficient. You have to pay for the energy it takes to freeze the water.



I think your best solution is to use a window A/C unit. Play carpenter to seal the unit and keep the bugs out. If you use enough hardware, the unit will not get stolen.

Answer 2

Window Fan Exhaust

Answer 3

OK First you can bring air in or let air out alone. There must be an intake for there to be an exhaust and the same with an out put must have an intake. If the air in the house is warmer then the air out side you would want to bring in the cold air from out side and exhaust the worm air from in the room to out side. If it is warmer out side you would want to do the opposite. You could also make a cheep inexpensive. chiller that would cool water pumped threw a coil of tubing by a windshield washer motor from a car it would be 12v.d.c. and cheep to run and use a 12v Muffin fan to blow across the coils of cold water and for get about the out side air or inside air. Pumping the water from a reservoir made of a tupperware container filled with ice and water would run for a wile before needing more ice. Just a thought

Answer 4

Exhaust Window Fan