How much space do you allow around the perimiter of my flat panel in an enclosure?

[puio]

Knocking a hole in the wall of my small bedroom. Wall is 4 inches thick. Planning to mount a 32 inch flat panel flush with the wall. Mounting and cableing will be done in the ajoining room. Any idea how much space i should leave around the perimeter of the flatpanel? A Mate said 6 cm. or 2.5 inches. That seems alot judging by the photos of installations that I have seen. I said a half inch would be appropriate as I can barely see a gap between the edge of the TV and the wall.
Any guidelines available? Can anyone give any advice on this? Thanks!

[shahedz]

i would leave about 1.5 inches to 2 inches most plasmas and LCDs do not generate that much heat but as long as there is space to circualte air it should be ok. thats my opinion, any others?

[mountfords]

I have a Sony V40 and am in the process of building a wall to sit it in. According to the Sony manual I should be leaving 15cm at the sides, 10cm at the bottom and 30cm at the top! Seems excessive to me so I've gone for 15cm all around. This is probably asking for trouble but I can't see it causing any major problems.

[garyb9900]

It's all to do with ventilation surely?
So if it's possible to fit a vent pipe to the recess and have it feeding to an outside grille/vent (by outside i don't mean outdoors just to somewhere outside the recess) then it should be possible to keep clearance to a minimum.
A friend had a Pioneer 42" installed just before Xmas by an install team sent out by the suppliers, however they refused to install it in the recess he had constructed until he had fitted some venting.

[neilball]

Don't forget to allow enough space to get the screen onto the bracket! If it's a 2-part affair as found with most standard plasma brackets you bolt half to the wall and half to the screen and then lift the screen onto the bracket. If you do not leave enough clearence you cannot get the screen into the recess in the first place!!

IMHO more clearance not only makes fitting easier but also is more forgiving if the screen is not *exactly* centred.