I apologize if this is not the correct Board for this inquiry, but I could not find one that dealt with the installation of switches. I have a project where we are using two Cisco Ethernet switches, IE-2000-16TC-G-L and IE-2000-8TC-L. The installation instructions indicate that a 2" gap is needed on the top, bottom and sides. The switches will be housed in a 72" x 28" x 18" enclosure and will be surrounded by 4" tall wire duct (only on either 2 or 3 of the sides of the switch). The ambient temperature in the factory is 40C and the enclosure will have a fan plus an exhaust filter, controlled with a thermostat that we currently have set to 50C. However, this could be lowered if it will reduce the airflow gap. My problem is, with a 2" gap we are now below our required minimum spare space in the enclosure, and I would prefer not to have to upsize it. How critical is this airflow gap?
