Will an Exhaust fan ruin my draft?

[phatfarmerbob]

My wife wants me to put a 300 cfm vent fan in her salon that we have in the house cause sometimes the fumes bother her. Now i wonder if this is gonna kill the draft in our stove. i really dont want to install an OAK would just cracking a window cut it ,,, thing is she would need to remember to do it everytime she turns on the fan. hope i can get some feedback on this. thanks in advance

ps the house is pretty tight 2000 sq ft

 

[Install fire 1]

Every house is different, but the your stove vent may act like an air intake if the fan pulls enough air out of the house with no return air replacing it.

If your house is tight could be a problem. I have seen it first hand, fan on fire almost dies, fan off fire will spring back to life.

May be worth a try, but have a back up plan in case you need excees air for the stove to run properly.

 

[oconnor]

It is always possible. There is a section in the Guide to Wood Heating (linked in my signature block) that discusses that. Give it a look. Some exhaust fans need switched makeup air intakes to avoid the depressurisation problems.

 

[begreen]

Salon?

 

[phatfarmerbob]

Salon?

she does hair from the house ( we have a 4 year old and she wanted to stay home with him rather then working outside the home)

 

[begreen]

Ah, got it. That is a first. Cool that she has a home business.

That might impact the stove. It might be worth considering isolating this area or providing it with it's own fresh air makeup with an air to air heat exchanger.

 

[woodgeek]

A fancy-pants solution would be to add balanced ventilation--two fans one blowing in and one blowing out, wired together. Of course, you could just do the 'outie' first, add the 'innie' if it DOES affect the burning.

 

[phatfarmerbob]

thats what im thinking ... maybe ill tack a note by the switch reminding her to crack a window neer the woodstove before turning on the fan , then see what happens

 

[begreen]

That amount of suction on the house will have to be made up somehow. It is going to pull outside air into the house via the path(s) of least resistance. For the long term I would consider an HRV.

http://healthandenergy.com/heat_recovery_ventilators.htm

 

[pyper]

My range hood is rated at 220 cfm and it doesn't make any difference that I have noticed.

Probably depends on how tight your house is and how close the hood is to the stove.

 

[pen]

My concerns is Fumes? Just double checking that you are having a problem with the old blue hair'd lady's dye job fumes and not the stove right?

If it's the stove is smelling up the place, there are other issues.

How about an air purifier?

I too have a range hood that's big like pyper's and have no effect on the stove but the stove is in my basement and my range hood is upstairs. I would say try it and see how it does. I doubt she'll need to run it full time if she has gotten away with having none for any length of time. If you then have a problem, crack a window or install the OAK.

pen