Smoking Room

[RonD]

Decide to make a smoking room in the house
Have 15x45 so 650sq/ft
8ft ceiling so 5400cu/ft
Above ground, but lower floor
2 exterior walls
2 doors, one window

Hot water heat so no vents, no AC

I can use two exhaust fans to create slight negative pressure that will pull air in from the rest of the house, via closed doors, so no smoke smell out, well smell would go out on the side of the house where no one goes anyway, lol

But the big deal is the natural gas fireplace, which I like to use in the winter
The chimney serves two fireplaces one just above this room, exterior wall

Not sure what to do about this
Do I seal it off fireplace with air tight doors and add a fresh air vent inside it?

I do like the fireplace doors open when in use, but don't want to suck in carbon monoxide either, lol

 

[Vindictus]

How big exhaust fans do you plan on using? standard bath room fan is around 80 cfm so 2 is 160cfm. In a 5400cu/ft room will not pull enough air through the closed door on your smoking room. And to error on the side of caution I would mount a battery operated carbon monoxide detector at the same high as the doors on your fire place as close to the door to the room with the fireplace. I only say battery operated because I don't know if you have a plug there plus plugin don't work when power goes out

 

[RonD]

Spec would be 600cfm for 5400cu/ft, exchanges air in the room every 10min

I was looking at 2 of this kind of "inline" exhaust fans: https://www.amazon.ca/iPower-GLFANXINLINEEXPC6-Variable-Controller-Ventilation/dp/B07PJ8M7L9/ref=asc_df_B07PJ8M7L9/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=335174632782&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2875425749550252899&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001575&hvtargid=pla-704154227994&th=1

These would be mounted outside the house on the wall, to reduce noise inside, also out of the way

Plus 1 on the carbon monoxide detector have 2 already by the boiler and hot water tank, and one upstairs

 

[Vindictus]

Your in Calgary so damn cold in winter. Would the moister make them freeze up? ( coming from house)
Well they take the cold?
What the heck those are just like the ones I found couple months ago (work for property management company)

 

[RonD]

It would be warmer air in the winter, and I am in Vancouver so not as cold as Calgary, we are on the ocean so tolerable winters, lol


Think I have the solution for fireplace, only $150

Fresh air vent inside fireplace, seal the doors better and once the hot air was flowing up I could turn down the fans and open the doors to enjoy the fire

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

How much air goes up the chimney when in use? Could the chimney serve as a negative pressure source?
Ahh, was typing too slow...

 

[RonD]

Actually it does
In the winter with fireplace doors open it does pull a bit of air but not alot
Well not enough for 4 guys smoking cigars, lol

Biggest concern is not to cause a down draft in chimny and suck in carbon monoxide
And the fresh air vent should make the fireplace "neutral" to the room unless I go nuts on the CFM exhaust,

 

[superj]

i would think you would want the smell of the cigars to spread around. i go to the smoke shops around here sometimes to pick up stuff for a friend and they smell great.

i don't smoke but cigars smell very good. not like trashy smelling cigarettes.

 

[avid]

Biggest concern is not to cause a down draft in chimny and suck in carbon monoxide
And the fresh air vent should make the fireplace "neutral" to the room unless I go nuts on the CFM exhaust,

In the US Residential Code the maximum for exhausting air is 400 CFM before makeup air is required, though this typically applies to range hoods. You could look into that online or consult an HVAC guy. A simple solution would be to crack that smoking room window slightly when you're running the exhaust fans, but of course you'd need to remember to do that every time. You can test whether you've created a backdraft by running the fireplace and smoking room fans and then extinguishing a match at the fireplace and watching whether the smoke is sucked up the chimney or back into the room.

I noticed tons of online articles about DIY smoking rooms, so maybe some answers to be found in them. Good luck!

 

[19Walt93]

Negative pressure combined with a furnace or fireplace is a bad idea.
My father spent the last 10 years of his life breathing through a hole in his neck, covered by a cloth flap called a stoma cover. Catholic school( until he got thrown out), the depression, landing in Normandie on D Day, and working in woolen mills for 40 years couldn't kill him but cigarettes did.
Please spend the money on Chantix, chewing gum or whatever works. You don't want to be around someone who breathes through a trach when they have a chest cold and cough up stuff.

 

[Ranger850]

Negative pressure combined with a furnace or fireplace is a bad idea.

+1^
I've cleaned many, many chimneys in my time. Almost every chimney in a room with a ceiling fan is fighting for draft. How tall your stack compared to the roof peak is will determine if the Chimney draws good or not. Adding exhaust fans with an open fire box will definitely pull smoke into the room. If you have the glass doors, a wood burning stove, or an "insert" you may be able to close them and see the fire, but not much heat is going in the room that way. Some inserts have pusher fans that push heat into the room, but then you have the negative pressure thing again.

Definition of "insert" = wood burning stove built to be inserted into a brick fireplace

 

[RonD]

Yes, I am counting on "Make up air" coming in from adjacent rooms, so no Smell goes out into those rooms
I will not seal the two doors into the rest of the house for that reason

The 600cfm is a bit high but also don't want to run motors on high full time, but may want to when a door is opened, i.e. trip to the bathroom, lol

But then again if I seal the doors, as best I can, and then add an adjustable Make up air vent it would isolate the room

I think I will have to start by sealing off the fireplace temporarily
Add an exhaust fan(300cfm) and do some draft tests at the doors

 

[Uncle Gump]

I just use the garage as the smoking room... or just sit on the deck.

 

[RonD]

Yes, those are the current options

 

[scotts90ranger]

I like me a cigar here and there, the nicotine kick helps to relax...

Walt, all understood and I agree but things are different than they were when a pack of cigs was a quarter or less... not everyone can afford the 1-5 pack a day habit that was common back in the day... I have a bunch of cigars on hand and I haven't bought any other than cigarillos in 1-2 years... it might take me 3 weeks to go through a 5 pack of Backwoods honey berry cigarillos having one on the way home from work on a long day...

I'm curious how this turns out, haven't done a cigar night with the guys in a while, usually just do that when out on the guys camping week, I go through way more then...