Man cave ventilation?

[BellevilleMXZ]

23 hours ago, PapaDisco said:

Assume that you're going to need considerably more vent capacity than you think.  I concur that inline fans are great for maximizing flow and minimizing noise IF you have some place to tuck them away (ceiling, floor, etc.).  If all you've got is a through-wall option, you're going to have a lot of noise in your space.

In most venting applications I've had good experiences with Fantech inline fans, most of which can be run high or low, so if you spend the money to install and find you're not getting the flow you wanted you can still adjust the flow.

Also, if you're in a very cold climate think about using a heat exchanger so that the exiting air warms the incoming air.  You'll want to always keep a slight negative pressure in your Man Cave so that you're pulling air from the house, with the fresh air going into the house.  This is for an attached garage.  If, however, your garage is truly freestanding and you don't have a worry about smoke exchange with the house then just set up your heat exchanger so that the fresh air is going back into the garage.

I would be interested in hearing what your air volume is and what you think the right exchange/air flow should be.

We don't get the house for another 3 weeks, so will have exact specs then. Its a single attached garage though.And yes it sure gets cold here, so will have to add something to  warm air coming in.

[BellevilleMXZ]

11 hours ago, tksamtec said:

https://beta.photobucket.com/u/tksamtec/a/83c2c2d3-9971-4086-a19f-6118f47cfc94
https://beta.photobucket.com/u/tksamtec/a/1bbf7ae1-82d8-4b9f-b593-1623d2e60799

1 link is to the finished cigar lounge/room, the other link is the remainder of the finished basement, where you can see the finished and closed in equipment room in the back corner by the bar.

I have a 14kV heater to condition my incoming fresh air (I believe its 220/70A) that I wired to a seperate 100A sub-panel for the room.  I have no need to cool the air coming in as my basement is typically on the cool side, year around, and in the summer, its usually 62-65 degrees down there (F), so sitting in the room for a couple hours in 80+ summer temps will warm it up to the 70s, but I really don't smoke much down there in the summer months, when I try to smoke outside or on the golf course.

Thanks !!

[Riverstyx]

Getting closer to starting my project.  Had an HVAC guy over last night, which opened up a few questions...

1) @bsubtown and others: the AC guy said he can put a damper in my return air, but it will only close it off 90% (if it closed off completely it'd get stuck he said).  Did you find a way around this, or is 90% good enough?

2) I keep having contractor and AC guy tell me this much negative pressure is bad, but they don't give me good reasons why.  Anyone have bad experience with negative pressure?  What would be bad about it (sucking paint off walls?!?)?

3) AC guy recommending closing off all AC into the room and installing a split system - is this overkill?

4)@tksamtec 700 cfm - I didn't see how many square feet this is for - do you know?  For others - is there a cfm/sqft recommendation?

Thanks all!

[bsubtown]

1) I have never heard of that. The damper into my room is made by Honeywell and has a closed setting. 

2) Theoretically the negative pressure could extinguish pilot lights in your water heater of furnace if present. I guess it could cause premature wear to seals in windows and doors but that is out there imo/ 

3) I could see it making sense if budget allows. https://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/products/outdoor-units/single-zone-cooling-and-heating Something like this could be the ticket and fix everything but ventilation. 

4) How big is the room? MY understanding is a smoking room would aim for about 15 air changes per hour.

My room is 18.5 x 14.25 x 8 multiply that by 15 and then divide by 60 minutes to get 527.25 CFM needed in the room to get 15 air exchanges per hour. 

[Riverstyx]

@bsubtown   Thanks for the responses.  No furnace to worry about.  The room is only 14' x 16' x 10'...so 560 cfm.  My AC guy recommended 150 cfm - ha!

[Puros Y Vino]

On 3/3/2019 at 9:51 PM, Fuzz said:

Raise the floor a few inches. Blow air up through the floor and have extractors in the false ceiling.

Yup. It's what these guys do for a living.  http://www.airkel.com/wq_pages/en/site/page-1.php

They took their cues form server room cooling and airflow strategies.  Pump cool air from below through perforated tiles, extract the warm air from ducts above. In this case, it's smoke vs air.  Might be overkill for a garage though. 

[tksamtec]

6 hours ago, Riverstyx said:

3) AC guy recommending closing off all AC into the room and installing a split system - is this overkill?

4)@tksamtec 700 cfm - I didn't see how many square feet this is for - do you know?  For others - is there a cfm/sqft recommendation?

Thanks all!

I can answer a couple of your ?'s... I have no idea on negative pressure, but in all of my research, a sealed but vented room was optimal, so there are no pressure issues.  Sealing off house AC/heat from from any sort of new venting from the room must be done, or your HVAC will suck the smoke out of the room through air returns and disperse it throughout your entire house.  I have a damper that allows warm air into the room for when I am not smoking and don't need to heat the room, when I am not smoking.  I have a damper that closes my house heat off when the room is not being used, and keeps things warm enough in the winter months jsut from the house HVAC... but my seperate heater unit is used when the room is venting smoke and the damper is shut to prevent any smoke from gettign into the house ducting.

My fan/blower may be 750cfm, its either 700 or 750.  I remember doing some calcs based on my ducting size and room size, to make sure that was sufficient for proper airflow...I would have to dig out my room build folder to see what I did for that calculation.  I think I had options of 700 and 1000 or 700 and 1250 when I was shopping, but I can't be 100% certain as this was built 3 years ago.  My room size is about 11'x13'.  The 15x air changes per hour number sounds about what I was shooting for and those calcs sound somehwat familiar to when I was doign the designing.