Non standard ventilation in a rental apartment?

Andrey · Jan 15, 2008

JBrunner said:
Why not rig a fan in the ventalation opening, even temporarily?

I think that's the solution.

Andrey · Jan 15, 2008

How many CFM would I need?

It's about 2*3*2 meters.

haris · Jan 15, 2008

Andrey said:
I need to clarify that there is an opening for ventilation, but no fan in there. There is some air movement, but I'd like more.

I had simillar situation in my bathroom/darkroom. I just installed 10 cm diameter ventilator (fan), it needs 4 screws and electric power, and it took 10 minutes to install it. Before that I worked for some time with just opening for ventilation, and my bathroom is smaller. I had no problems.

Removed Account · Jan 15, 2008

My bedroom does double duty as a darkroom and the ventilation is minimal so I take frequent breaks airing the room out. A month ago I bought an air purifier de-ionizer HEPA filter fan thingy to cut down on the dust in my prints, and it turns out it helps with the chemical fumes too! My room is fairly small and they had one on sale for $59.99 that was normally $74.99 or something. I leave it on all the time now and just crank up the power when I'm doing my darkroom work. Something to check out, for you.

- Justin

resummerfield · Jan 15, 2008

Putting a fan in the existing ventilation opening is probably the best solution. You could make it temporary by using plug-in power connections.

Dont forget to allow for make-up air to replace that which you are exhausting. The half-inch gap under the door will work, but it will not be lightproof. A solution would be another door as JOVO suggested, with a light-proof grill that you can purchase from most photo stores. An even better solution would be to install a light-proof fan in the new door, pulling in air and helping the exhaust fan work.

You room size works out to about 427 cubic feet. I would allow at least 6 air changes per hour, which works out to about 50 CFM. But these fans are not very efficient, and they will not be in the ideal locations (over the chemicals), so I would use 100 CFM fans.

Murray@uptowngallery · Jan 15, 2008

427 s.f? That's almost as big as my mother-in-law's last house.

One argument to convince a landlord is a ventilation fan will reduce chance of mildew and the paint will last longer. Offering to install/pay for it may inspire them to say yes....Of course, where it exhausts to is another question.

I'd be surprised to see a rental agreement that prohibited a darkroom, uless they had a previous 'stink' with a former tenant.

Prohibitions on goats & chickens are probably more likely.

The 50 cfm fans seem to go on sale more often. I haven't seen 100's at the big box stores, but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

Andrey · Jan 15, 2008

Justin Silber said:
My bedroom does double duty as a darkroom and the ventilation is minimal so I take frequent breaks airing the room out. A month ago I bought an air purifier de-ionizer HEPA filter fan thingy to cut down on the dust in my prints, and it turns out it helps with the chemical fumes too! My room is fairly small and they had one on sale for $59.99 that was normally $74.99 or something. I leave it on all the time now and just crank up the power when I'm doing my darkroom work. Something to check out, for you.

- Justin

What's the model? I'm asking because I'm in ontario and we might have the same chainstore.

Removed Account · Jan 15, 2008

Andrey said:
What's the model? I'm asking because I'm in ontario and we might have the same chainstore.

It's a Bionaire 99.97% True HEPA Air Cleaner. My room is pretty small, so I bought the small model for 81 square feet. I bought it at London Drugs, which you don't have in Ontario, but I'm sure most pharmacies will have them, likely hardware stores too. I still vent the room through the door fairly often, just in case, but it has been a great help in keeping dust down (almost unbelieveably so when you consider that it is in an ideal dust-making environment) and had the added benefit of cutting down on chemical odours and fumes.

John Kasaian · Jan 15, 2008

If you've got a vent but no fan your landlord should spring for a fan and installation. You don't mention how old your apartment is, but I'd be willing to bet there is a mold issue from the situation you're describing. Bathroom fans are not expensive and it is likely that since there already is a vent the orignal fan was probably removed somewhere along the way. My guess anyway.

Bob F. · Jan 16, 2008

One question is: where does the vent lead to? If it goes straight outside, fine; if it goes via other apartments then possibly not so fine as odours will be pushed into the other apartments... Also of course, there may already be a fan at the other end of the vent pulling air out of the bathroom as you already have some (small) air movement, though that may just be from convection.

Use of low-odour fixer (Tetenal and Fotospeed and others make them) and zero-odour citric acid based stop bath (Fotospeed, Ilford etc) will go a long way to keeping the worst of the fumes down. Luckily most developers seem to have relatively little pong... As long as you keep opening the door for ventilation, this may be enough as I can use my 10'x11' darkroom without the fans running with that combination.

Good luck, Bob.

PHOTOTONE · Jan 16, 2008

Just because something smells bad, doesn't mean it will actually harm you. Limburger cheese smells bad.

Murray@uptowngallery · Jan 16, 2008

... Limburger cheese smells bad.

...and it DOESN'T hurt?

Non standard ventilation in a rental apartment?

haris

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