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Turned a room into a darkroom

wallacjm

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Milwaukee, WI
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I turned a small room into a darkroom in my apartment. I covered the widows with black out film and the have blackout curtains. The door has a blackout curtain rod with a blackout curtain.
Now the room is complete void of light as long as I turn of my computer and printers.

In the summer it gets worm in here. I need to vent the room through the one of the windows. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can do this and still keep the room light tight? I can 3d print something.
 
Some duct and a duct fan to blow air out the window should do it. Or if you had an old window AC unit, even if it didn't work the fan probably works.
 
You can join two 90′ pipes into a U or S shape, and insert a fan.
I'd let it blow fresh air in (with a dust filter) instead of sucking air out (it's called an over-pressure-system and avoids dust entering the room whenever you open a door).
 
Just a few days ago I drew this and printed it a couple of times.
My darkroom uses a cloth on one side, and the ventilation creates negative pressure that pulls it inward. I wanted to prevent that with the vents.
You have to find out how many bendings (5) and the distance (4mm) between them works for you.
My vent is realy small, just 35mm in diameter.

 
A simple light-tight duct is easy enough to make or buy -- you can paint/spray paint the inside as needed.

But as mentioned, just a duct alone won't move the air, so you need a fan of some sort. In-duct fans are easy to buy, and come in various sizes -- at home improvement stores.

But you still have two obstacles. If you just have a duct with a fan, it's either pushing air IN or OUT. You can set it up either way, but you will need another duct somewhere -- or the air still won't move. You need a duct to get air into the room and A DUCT TO GET IT OUT. I have a duct with a fan pushing air into my darkroom, and one on the opposite end pushing it out.

Finally, the air that you pull into the room has to be at the temperature you want. If you simply pull in outdoor air, it might just heat up the room.

And whatever air you push or pull into the room should be filtered.
 
My previous darkroom had an extraction point in the ceiling - great for California summers, but a real problem when I was heating the space in the winter, since I wanted to keep the hot air. It was really easy to use a bathroom extractor when I put it together, but I would have been better served with an extractor in the wall at mid-height. My inlet source was at external ambient temperature, too.

It is nice to have your air inlet temperature controlled, but you have to work with the space and circumstances you have.
 
If you set up a fan to pull air out of the room, air to replace it will be sucked in wherever possible, dragging dust along with it. Better to push filtered air into the room.
 
tih said:
If you set up a fan to pull air out of the room, air to replace it will be sucked in wherever possible, dragging dust along with it. Better to push filtered air into the room.
Click to expand...

If you can, do both, and balance them appropriately.
 

Your apartment is not air conditioned? Baseboard heaters and window units in other rooms?

I would suggest getting a small window air conditioner around 5000 btu's and mounting in the windows provided it's the type that opens by sliding up, The aprons on the sides could be replaced by opaque materials and there would be little light getting in. I have a Frigidaire that size that would be ideal for a small room. Window AC units do not vent to the outside, they only circulate air within the room.

If that's not possible, you could build a small box about 3 1/2 inches deep and as wide as the windows with enough height to accomodate a small fan, which could be about 8 inches diameter. For that size, the box should be 12 inches tall. There are small fans used for car radiators that are able to move air through restrictions that are cheap, but likely 12 volt, so you would need a power adapter to run one. So you would have an 8 inch hole on one side of the box on the inside, and a similar size hold on the other side of the box facing outside. That hold could be square or rectangular. The inside of the box should be painted flat black. The outside would need a hood or louvers keeping water from coming in and be painted with exterior paint.

Fans like this are inexpensive but a bit noisy and able to move air through restrictions.
 
Or do what I did for 20 years living in the northern US with no AC: make a few trays of ice cubes a day, fill up glasses with ice and water and keep drinking them, wear a swimsuit or underwear
 
loccdor said:
Or do what I did for 20 years living in the northern US with no AC: make a few trays of ice cubes a day, fill up glasses with ice and water and keep drinking them, wear a swimsuit or underwear
Click to expand...

The Naked Photographer on YouTube follows your advice...
 
tih said:
If you set up a fan to pull air out of the room, air to replace it will be sucked in wherever possible, dragging dust along with it. Better to push filtered air into the room.
Click to expand...

If the room is really light tight, it's likely air tight as well -- so there's little to no air coming in. That's why I suggested a filtered, light tight, air intake.
 
Alan Townsend said:
Window AC units do not vent to the outside, they only circulate air within the room.
Click to expand...

Exactly. An A/C unit just cools the existing air -- just as a electric heater will increase the temperature. Neither has anything to do with getting fresh air into a darkroom or getting "stale" air out. Two completely different issues -- although both are usually important in a darkroom. You want to keep the air temperature in the darkroom stable and comfortable -- and CLEAN.
 
wallacjm said:
I turned a small room into a darkroom in my apartment.
Click to expand...
This suggests some of the options mentioned may not be possible We (a) don't know if he owns the apartment nor, if he does, what building restrictions apply to such apartments

OP tell us what are your limitations, if any, on your apartment. I can imagine severe restrictions in terms of what you can do if you rent it

Thanks

pentaxuser
 

Yes, you can build a light trap around the vent exit that will trap all light leaking in. They are near 100% effective and easy to fabricate. I built one for my basement darkroom and will look for a picture.
 
xkaes said:
I'd advise against painting the walls black!
Click to expand...

Me too. It's depressing. I painted the wall behind the enlarger flat black and hung a black curtain left and right of the enlargerbut the ret of the walls are painted flat white for comfort.
 
I turned a bedroom into a dry darkroom by putting blackout cloth over the window with Velcro. I did the same to a bathroom into a wet darkroom.
 
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