Ventilation Question

[SoCal gunner]

As you probably guessed by the title, I'm thinking of doing something stoopid - punching hole(s) in the ceiling or wall in the name of smoking cigars.

Early browsing of the interwebs has a lot of useless click-bait articles on ventilation, so I'm reaching out to the BUMS for first-hand info or links to sources.

The Situation Report:
Roughly 18'x10' room with 9' ceiling. Two walls of the room are exterior and there is attic space above the ceiling. The room has one large window and has a central HVAC supply vent; there is no return vent in this room (pulls from doorway). Pretty much just going to be me in here smoking 99% of the time.

So to evacuate the smoke - I either need to go out or up. If I go out through an exterior wall, I have to deal with a stucco exterior (its like concrete plaster). If I go through the ceiling it would be easier with a laddered access in the garage. If I just go into the attic - will the smoke find its way out through gable vents, etc or will it make my whole house smell like smoke?

Regardless of the way I go to evacuate the smoke - do you think I need a fresh air intake? I know if air goes out, air must come in - the question here is it OK to just let replacement air come in under the door? I suppose I always have the ability to crack open the window.

What systems, sizing, solutions do you recommend?


PS Air purifiers - Does the discussion start and end with Rabbit Air?

[DogRockets]

You live in Southern California - what in the world do you need indoor smoking for?!?

[Emperor Zurg]

You live in Southern California - what in the world do you need indoor smoking for?!?

Perznakly

[josh lucky 13]

Tony should be your main source for info as he gets to smoke indoors. He will correct me where I am wrong as I understand his set up is he has a negative pressure in his smoking room this means air is always being pulled from under the door but this helps stop the smoke from seeping into the rest of the home. You are going to want to vent it out of the house or risk it coming back in to places you dont want so thru the roof? Or out the side and get like a dry vent cover that opens when in use and closes when not.

[Regiampiero]

No rabbit air is only good enough if it's within 2 ft of where you smoke. I use an industrial smoke eater I picked up on craigslist that is similar to what certain shops use. It eliminates the smoke, but the odor stays.

If you want to exhaust than you'll need some sort of return or you'll crack your window seals, but depending on the size of the fan that quarter of an inch space under the door will be more than adequate, not to mention it will actually keep most the smoke away from the door you'll be exiting from.

As far as fan size. Calculate the cubic feet in your room and think about how long you want the smoke to linger. You hot 1,620 CF of air to push, so 500 CFM will deal with that in a little more than 3 minutes, but if you want to clear the air in the time fir the next puff than you'll need at least a 1000 CFM fan.

Lastly, wall or ceiling? Really don't know without seeing the conditions, but the ceeling sound less than ideal especially if you ever consider using the attic as storage space. Than again a big silver cowling on the side of the house might not be a good choice either.

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[SoCal gunner]

You live in Southern California - what in the world do you need indoor smoking for?!?

Rain, Summers >100°F, Winters (well, cold to me - LOL) and Because I want to?

[SoCal gunner]

Tony should be your main source for info as he gets to smoke indoors. He will correct me where I am wrong as I understand his set up is he has a negative pressure in his smoking room this means air is always being pulled from under the door but this helps stop the smoke from seeping into the rest of the home. You are going to want to vent it out of the house or risk it coming back in to places you dont want so thru the roof? Or out the side and get like a dry vent cover that opens when in use and closes when not.

Yeah, I got to chat a bit with him on one of the VHerfs about it - He's got some kind of "in-duct" fan with a timer. Hoping he stops in for more details and where it exhausts to.

[SoCal gunner]

No rabbit air is only good enough if it's within 2 ft of where you smoke. I use an industrial smoke eater I picked up on craigslist that is similar to what certain shops use. It eliminates the smoke, but the odor stays.

If you want to exhaust than you'll need some sort of return or you'll crack your window seals, but depending on the size of the fan that quarter of an inch space under the door will be more than adequate, not to mention it will actually keep most the smoke away from the door you'll be exiting from.

As far as fan size. Calculate the cubic feet in your room and think about how long you want the smoke to linger. You hot 1,620 CF of air to push, so 500 CFM will deal with that in a little more than 3 minutes, but if you want to clear the air in the time fir the next puff than you'll need at least a 1000 CFM fan.

Lastly, wall or ceiling? Really don't know without seeing the conditions, but the ceeling sound less than ideal especially if you ever consider using the attic as storage space. Than again a big silver cowling on the side of the house might not be a good choice either.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Is there a rule of thumb for how often the room should turn over?

Make/Model of industrial smoke eater?

[josh lucky 13]

Rain, Summers >100°F, Winters (well, cold to me - LOL) and Because I want to?

Man up I did the virtual orgy in 100 degree temps.

[Regiampiero]

Is there a rule of thumb for how often the room should turn over?

Make/Model of industrial smoke eater?

It's an Emerson something, but it's not a flush unit so probably not best for inside the house mine is made for a large space and it's inside the garage.

I'd say anywhere between 1 and 5 minutes depending on how many people are smoking. There also variable speed fans that you might want to look at.

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