Exhaust Fan Enclosure

[Dave West]

I'll be getting a used laser next week which I'll be installing in my garage. I was thinking about building an enclosure for the fan like I read about on this forum. My question is, doesn't the fan motor need air circulation for cooling?

Thanks,

Dave

[Joe Pelonio]

They don't get hot, but the air flowing through it will cool it anyway.

[Larry Bratton]

I'll be getting a used laser next week which I'll be installing in my garage. I was thinking about building an enclosure for the fan like I read about on this forum. My question is, doesn't the fan motor need air circulation for cooling?

Thanks,

Dave
I put mine outside inside a doghouse I bought from Tractor Supply for $60 bucks. Its ideal because it keeps the blower out of the weather, the top comes off to work on it and it gets plenty of air to do it's job.

[Vicky Orsini]

Our plan (when we finally get the garage converted into a finished/heated/air conditioned workshop, sometime in the next decade ;) ) is to mount the blower in the attic. There's a hatch in the ceiling to reach the attic for maintenance, and we'll install a remote switch on the wall so I can turn it on and off as needed.

[Richard Rumancik]

I have my blower mounted in the attic of a garage. It gets very hot in a garage attic in the summer. It can easily reach 110 F (45 Celcius) and maybe more. You will have difficulty finding a motor that is rated to run in an ambient above 40C.

The blower is separate from the motor; the motor turns a belt which turns the blower. So in this case, the blower does not cool itself.

I removed one of the roof vents and installed a power vent (motorized exhaust blower) on a thermostatic switch, but that was not enough. I had to add a separate small blower to cool the box in which the motor is sitting. I have the intake set up to draw air from the outside, and it is pulled over the motor and exhausts into the attic space. I also put an adjustable thermostatic switch in the motor housing which will kill the power if it gets too hot for any reason (eg failure of the motor cooling blower). In the late fall I disconnect the air from the outside as there is no risk of overheating in the winter where I live.

The reason I picked the attic is that it doesn't take any floor space, nothing outside to worry about, and it exhausts high up where nobody is exposed to any exhaust fumes.

If you use the "doghouse" approach, you won't be subjected to such intense heat in the summer. But make sure you keep the ambient temp below what is shown on the motor rating plate. (or 40C max. if there is nothing marked.)