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Smoking Room Ventilation

BlindedByScience

Proud Father of a Kearney, NE LEO
Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
9,758
Hey guys.....remember the picture of the big mudhole I posted some time back...?? Well, they are building me a house there, go figure.....:p

Things are really moving right along. I wanted to share with you guys what I'm doing for ventilaton in my smoking room.

I'd originally thought about using a 4-600 CFM booster fan and just creating a negative pressure in the room. Talked to the HVAC guy and he told me that wasn't a good idea for a couple of reasons. First off, new homes these days are VERY sealed up. There wouldn't be that much make up air available, so the amount you'd actually exhaust would be lots less. He was a great guy, and very helpful. We discussed several options and I decided on using a "heat recovery ventilator" or an HRV. What this is, is basically a heat exchanger with filters on it. What it does is heat / cool the outside air using the air that's being exhausted from the room through a passive heat exchanger (with intake / exhaust fans moving the air). That way, if it's 30F outside, I won't be blowing ice cold air into the room in bulk. Conversely, when it's 90F outside, I won't be cooking myself with hot outside air.

The final detail is an electric dampner on the HVAC intake which seals the room off from the rest of the house when I kick on the ventilator. I'm told I'll get a solid 2-300 CFM which will completely replace the air in the room every 5-7 minutes. It is a completely isolated system from the main house's HVAC. Should work great....!!

Here'st the room exhaust, in the ceiling, center of the room. That's a 10" duct and it goes to a fan that feeds one side of the HRV:

gallery_1565_604_50706.jpg



Here's the fresh air intakes....from the outside air intake to the HRV:

gallery_1565_604_85149.jpg


A little hard to see, but here's the magic box - the HRV. It's sitting in a drip pan to collect any condensation. It has washable filters that I'll pull, wash, and reinstall once a year or so. It doesn't look like it in this shot, but it's in the upper crawlspace next to the furnace, and actually easy to get to via the pull down access ladder that we'll have:

gallery_1565_604_57742.jpg


Needless to say, with a nice big screen and my Staebell, this should be a great space to have a smoke when the weather sucks outside. Of course you guys will all be invited for the opening herf...!!....:thumbs:

Cheers - B.B.S.
 
Wow. I am impressed.

Question. Does the air exchanger move enough CFM to create negative pressure as well or does it just exchange bad air for good.?
 
Question. Does the air exchanger move enough CFM to create negative pressure as well or does it just exchange bad air for good.?
I'm told it will exchange bad for good, making the system pressure neutral or slightly negative. I may add a threshold to the door if any smoke escapes.

The HVAC guy was really cool and seemed to have a good handle on what I wanted to do. My builder looked the system over and was jealous.....:laugh: He told the HVAC guy that "....when you finish this up, you're going to do one for me just like this, right...??..."....;)
 
That's an awesome system. Please continue to post more pics.

Mike
 
That's really nice. Look forward to seeing the completed project!
 
That is absolutely awesome Tom! Can't wait to see the pics once it's finished.

What Randy said! :laugh:
 
Question. Does the air exchanger move enough CFM to create negative pressure as well or does it just exchange bad air for good.?
I'm told it will exchange bad for good, making the system pressure neutral or slightly negative. I may add a threshold to the door if any smoke escapes.

The HVAC guy was really cool and seemed to have a good handle on what I wanted to do. My builder looked the system over and was jealous.....:laugh: He told the HVAC guy that "....when you finish this up, you're going to do one for me just like this, right...??..."....;)

I'm just finishing up a similar project like this. What we've done is to exhaust the dirty air from the ceiling in the smoking room and return clean air outside of the room to another part of the house, creating a nice natural negative pressure in the smoking room. I have two HVAC vents in the smoking room that will offset the exchanger a bit but overall I think it will still be negative. I was really worried about creating positive pressure in the smoking room and spilling smoke into the rest of the house. Hopefully this will work out. Good luck with yours!!
 
That is already my favorite room in your house!

I can't wait to see finished pics brother.

-Jimmy
 
Out of curiosity, why did you choose this ventilation system over a smoke remover/ HEPA filtration system. I ask this because I just equipped my smoking room with a Miracle Air air cleaner at the advice of a local contractor. He told me that it would eliminate any heat loss that one would have with a ventilation system and he said it would work just as well. I've been running it for the past 2 months and it seems to do the job. But you never know...
 
I hope it works out just like planned, Tom. That's great that you get to do up a room from scratch like that.

:thumbs:
 
Out of curiosity, why did you choose this ventilation system over a smoke remover/ HEPA filtration system. I ask this because I just equipped my smoking room with a Miracle Air air cleaner at the advice of a local contractor. He told me that it would eliminate any heat loss that one would have with a ventilation system and he said it would work just as well. I've been running it for the past 2 months and it seems to do the job. But you never know...
After speaking to guys that own cigar lounges, stores where smoking is still legal, as many folks as I could, they all told me the best possible answer is to get the smoke out of the house....period. I have looked at hepa / ozone filtration systems but decided this was going to be a better path. Since we're in the construction phase, the ducting and heat exchanger placement was relatively easy. The only downside I can see to this was the cost.....it wasn't cheap. But, my hope is that it will be a solid, easy to maintain system for years to come.

I hope.....:whistling:

Edited to add: This is the O3 / HEPA unit that some guys like. They sell them locally and I've looked at them. Don't have a clue how well they work.....
 
Out of curiosity, why did you choose this ventilation system over a smoke remover/ HEPA filtration system. I ask this because I just equipped my smoking room with a Miracle Air air cleaner at the advice of a local contractor. He told me that it would eliminate any heat loss that one would have with a ventilation system and he said it would work just as well. I've been running it for the past 2 months and it seems to do the job. But you never know...
After speaking to guys that own cigar lounges, stores where smoking is still legal, as many folks as I could, they all told me the best possible answer is to get the smoke out of the house....period. I have looked at hepa / ozone filtration systems but decided this was going to be a better path. Since we're in the construction phase, the ducting and heat exchanger placement was relatively easy. The only downside I can see to this was the cost.....it wasn't cheap. But, my hope is that it will be a solid, easy to maintain system for years to come.

I hope.....:whistling:

Edited to add: This is the O3 / HEPA unit that some guys like. They sell them locally and I've looked at them. Don't have a clue how well they work.....

If I had a choice, I'd prefer to ventilate the room and get the smoke out of the house. Anyways, I'm just glad to sit inside and smoke during these cold winters! Thanks for sharing the photo's and your thoughts Tom!
 
Nice job! My brother in-law had new construction and put in a air exchanger. It was a great system 8K worth. He could never in his words, "get it right" when 4-5 of us were over pounding on the cigars. I like your idea of a 600 CFM booster fan / exhaust system to "throw the smoke" out of there. Cracking the window a bit for some fresh stuff in the process. Either system is fine. Your system is better than fine. ENJOY..............Where's YOUR chair going in that prime location!
 
Tom great to hear your house is moving along. Congrats on setting up your private room for cigar enjoyment!
 
That is a great looking room, can't wait to see the finished product. Are the "fresh" air intake vents grabbing air from the garage, or another room in the house?
 
That is a great looking room, can't wait to see the finished product. Are the "fresh" air intake vents grabbing air from the garage, or another room in the house?
The way it works is:

Outside the house air -> heat exchanger -> fresh air into the room
Cigar smoke in the room -> heat exchanger -> exhausted out of house to roof vent.
 
That is a great looking room, can't wait to see the finished product. Are the "fresh" air intake vents grabbing air from the garage, or another room in the house?
The way it works is:

Outside the house air -> heat exchanger -> fresh air into the room
Cigar smoke in the room -> heat exchanger -> exhausted out of house to roof vent.


Cool. Killer system you have going on there.
 
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