Ambiant Dust and Celing Fans

[Jonathan Dormody]

Folks,

I built a small basement shop (approx 8' x 12'). It does not have any windows, but has two french doors that lead into another room (an office) where there is a window. In any event my issues are such:

I'd like to be able to do some finishing during the winter in this room and I'd like to do a little more ambient dust collection (I have a dust collector that is sucking from all of the tools in there quite well).

Anyway, my question is this: would simply installing a bathroom-type ceiling fan in this room accomplish both of my needs, or should I install an ambient dust cleaner and a fan to the outside? Any other options?

Thanks,

Jon

[Cecil Arnold]

IMHO the ceiling fan will only recirculate the dust. From your post it appears you want to (or need to) move the existing air with any dust and fumes to the outside, in which case you will need a source for clean make up air to replace the air you are exhausting. Otherwise you will only recirculate a certain amount of dust around the fan. If you are unable to get makeup air then an ambient cleaner may be in order but will do nothing for finishing fumes if any.

[Jonathan Dormody]

Hey, thanks for your reply on the forum regarding ventillation in a basement shop. I talked further with a heating/cooling guy and he seemed to think I did not need to have makeup air unless I was really moving a ton. And, I have a window in the adjacent room which I could possibly crack. I'm wondering what CFM I am really talking and if I really need make up air.

- Jon

[Rob Russell]

Jon,

Any fan that's exhausting to the outside will need "makeup" air from somewhere. That somewhere will be the path of least resistance. You don't want that path of least resistance to be your chimney so you're sucking exhaust from your furnace/boiler back into the house. Same thing with a fireplace.

When we first moved into our house in CT, it was Thanksgiving week. Being a new, broke homeowner, I fired up the woodstove and went out to get more boxes of stuff from our condo. My wife and father-in-law apparently wanted to see how well the whole-house-attic-fan sucked, so they turned it on. Without opening any windows. 30 seconds later my mother-in-law was downstairs screaming at them because they'd sucked all the smoke from the chimney back through the woodstove and into our family room. The smoke was a foot deep up at the ceiling.

I wondered why the windows were open when I got home and things smelled really smokey, but they confessed.

You don't want to do that to the carbon monoxide in your chimney. It doesn't smell bad but it kills.

Rob