Big Nasty Brain

Electric and Ductwork

It's been a week since my last post and even though I've been idle here, I haven't been idle in the man cave.

Electrical Work

To help isolate the cigar smoke smell from the rest of the house, I wanted to put up a drywall ceiling. If I hadn't said it before, I had plumbing and electrical work hanging from the joists that all had to be moved.

I had to move or remove the fluorescent lights that were hanging and move any wires that were lazily run and hung on the joists. I'd detached everything and put up the framing around it, but the time had come where I had to bite the bullet and rerun wires, etc.

I put in a 20 amp circuit for the outlets, and installed 10 outlets around the room - about every 4 feet from corners, doors, and each other. I went with 20 amp so any refrigerators or air purifiers, etc. would be accommodated.

 

Double duplexes for the A/V equipment.

I put in a 15 amp circuit for the lights and the exhaust fan.

I am using 4 sconce lights that I got on eBay for $16 (S/H included) on a dimmer. I am putting two recessed lights on a separate switch, and the fan - which is only 98 watts - on it's own switch.

I also had to rerun the basement's existing circuit to accommodate the lighting in the utility areas and an outlet for our freezer.

The fluorescent fixture moved to the area where the electrical box resides.

Duct Work

I bought a 10 inch ceiling box with a 90 degree out for the primary exhaust. I couldn't find this item at Home Depot or Lowe's, so I bought it at a place in Norristown/Plymouth Meeting called Riley Supply. I also went to them for the exhaust hood that will be on the outside of the house.

The 10" ceiling box in place. The duct is 6".

The most important part of this plan was the exhaust fan.

There was a lot of conflicting information out there about ventilation needs and how to size and select a ventilation system.

I found a formula for scaling ventilation needs that went like this:

Room length x Room width x Room height = cubic feet of the room.

In my case, that was 16' x 12' by 7' = 1344 cubic feet.

I needed to divide the cubic feet by 60 minutes. 1344/60 = 22.4 CFM. This meant, to exchange the air once in the room, per hour, I would need a 22.4 CFM fan.

I want 12 to 16 exchanges per hour in moderate to heavy smoke conditions. Granted, that won't happen often, but if I get several of my friends smoking in the room at one time, it'll be nice to have.

So, the range I would need was defined by 12 x 22.4 = 268.8 CFM. and 16 x 22.4 358.4 CFM.

I ended up buyng a Panasonic Whisperline in-line fan, model FV-30NLF1 that is rated at 340 CFM. This is way above the minimum 268.8 CFM I needed, and almost at the 358.4CFM on the high side. (The fan is spec'd at 370 CFM.)

The Panasonic FV-30NLF1340 CFM fan.

The other factor was noise. This baby would be installed right under my kitchen, so I didn't want anyone upstairs being bothered by a loud fan running. Fans are rated in sones. The average bathroom fan was rated at 2 sones. This fan was rated at 1.7 sones, whereas many utility fans or hydroponic fans were rated 6 or more sones.

I had to do a little modification to the floor joists to fit the fan in, but it was no big deal.

Next up, the vapor barrier and drywall.