High-rise Dwellers: Did you encounter these ventilation issues?
bdrkmf
8 years ago
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writersblock (9b/10a)
8 years agoRelated Discussions
ventilation question - can I go with fewer CFM's?
Comments (22)There are many rules of thumb for cfm, even linear dimensions of the hood edges excluding walls. One can also calculate on the basis of effluent velocity and hood aperture. (I've covered that somewhere.) But all of these will, as pointed out above, likely end up being well over 300 cfm for any hood that would work with a 48 inch cooktop. Most of us would agree that if financially feasible, a properly heated, pressurized, balanced MUA system is needed, and, (in my view) the affordability of a 48-inch Wolf range should include the MUA cost in the project. However, there may be ways of circumventing some of the costs. One way (won't work for fireplaces) is to have any other combustion appliances (furnaces and hot water heaters and gas dryers) in a room that is isolated from the kitchen (air flow wise) with its own not necessarily well heated minimal MUA (after all, the flow rate for these appliances will be small). Then the safety issue is accounted for, even if the inspector won't care. Then a passive MUA design (a damper in a duct) passing outside air to a heater would be sufficient to pull in sufficient replacement air. The kitchen pressure would be low (lower if filtering is used), the hood flow would not be what one might expect, but the code would be met and safety achieved. A 10-inch duct with pressure sensitive damper flowing air (due to negative house pressure) past a heater of some type (think 100 kBTU/hr order of magnitude) would be the type of heater required, maybe larger in MN. You would save the cost of the big blower needed for pressure balanced MUA, and the cost of a proper pressure control system and its tuning. kas...See MoreHigh-rise condo odor problem
Comments (13)A San Francisco Millennium Tower resident has a news report on this subject. Inspectors cut openings in her outside walls and the unit below and discovered openings due to shoddy construction. Search Google for the video. I live in an upper ranch condo with townhouses next door and a unit below. I have been smelling sewer, garbage,animal odors. For over ten years. Yes, I have reported the issues to the property manager and the HOA with no action on their part. In the last two years , chemicals have been applied in my unit. The chemicals smell like smoke and also a mentholated odor which I suspect.Is a bug pesticide. The menthol and smokey smells are in two rooms, while.The sewer smell is all over my.Unit-2,000 sq. Ft. I suspect the sewer pipes have been opened deliberately. I have contacted the state & local police regarding the smells, hacking and an opening in my attic floor. Yes, some crook connected my ATT wifi wires to the townhouse next door and the unit downstairs. If you have an attic, make sure to inspect it thoroughly for wires and openings....See MoreHeat in the kitchen? A question for warm-weather dwellers...
Comments (18)As you update the old stuff, you maybe triggering the code upgrade. If you don't touch it, you can leave it alone but if you open up the wall, for example, you are required to insulate to the R value required by code. If you are updating with permit, you have to really know what is expected and what it will cost you. BTW, cork is not a good medium to put radiant underneath because the heat does not conduct through it. If you are doing electrical mats for radiant heat, depending on the spec, you may not be able to linoleum since you may break the wires while walking on the linoleum.) If you are on a slab, you have to insulate the space between the radiant electrical mat and the slab. Otherwise, you end up heating the earth under the concrete slab. Radiant floor heat is actually rather complicated. I did an enormous amount of research because we retrofitted our basement slab and put it under tiles of bathrooms. We used hydronic type which is very expensive. My next door neighbor did the electrical radiant mat under his tiled kitchen floor. It broke after a few years and stopped working. They completely remodeled their high end kitchen only 10 years after putting it in. (that's another story)...See MoreIs ANYONE happy with downdraft ventilation? (allow me to vent)
Comments (73)We had a Thermador range with an integrated downdraft for about 14 years, in the peninsula. I liked the arrangement so well that we kept the location of the stove, refrigerator and sink for the remodel. We also kept the Thermador to use in the new kitchen. That was not a good idea. The stove had problems almost immediately when it was reinstalled. The downdraft was doing fine. Now we had a real problem. We had to replace the stove, but finding one that would fit was a problem. That wasn't the biggest problem for us. We thought we were going to have to install a hood. Our kitchen is at the end of a long room and I remember how I hated the overhead suspended cabinets that were in the original kitchen. I just didn't want something hanging from the ceiling and destroying the view. Since we are old, we wanted a range with a self cleaning oven. It was hard to find one with our specifications that would fit into the space designed for the new kitchen. We bought a Dacor range with a Dacor downdraft. These are separate units. I love the range and the downdraft works perfectly, for us. Long story to get to the point. When the new stove and downdraft were installed, the installers left the vent pipe with the opening upside down on a piece of wood under the house. That mean the downdraft did not work correctly. We could not figure out the problem, so my husband crawled into the crawl space and took pictures. I guess they figured old people would never figure this out. We had to hire another company to redo the venting. They took the vent pipe straight out to the side with no turns. It works perfectly. It even vents the steam from my rice cooker that is on the counter next to the stove. My point is that if installed correctly, a downdraft works....See Moreloonlakelaborcamp
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