Exhaust vent in closed-off area + silencer design

Started by Audio Creature on 15 April 2012. 1 reply.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 17518.

Hello and thanks for such an excellent resource, I am faced by the following ventilation challenge in my home studio design in an existing appartment building, where I cannot breach original walls, just create new drywall partitioning with vents. The appartment is sealed on 3 sides which makes for already not-so-great internal airflow. As from the plan, the exhaust area will need to flow into a dead-end antechamber (just outside the bathroom) and exit via the door to the bedroom that will need to be left open, leading to a less-than-ideal outflow, and workable only if the door is left ajar, to avoid pressurizing that area. So the main question is, will it work? And in such a situation given only one fan, would you place it at the inlet or the exhaust?
Image not preserved: HomeStudioMetric700px.jpg
Here is a picture of the exhaust vent area
Image not preserved: Exhaust-Vent-Above-Studio-Entrance300px.jpg
My current plans are to place the fan at the exhaust vent, inside a plenum silencer made from an 92cmx60cmx38cm IKEA cabinet, with two internal baffles, leaning in the direction of the flow, lined with a layer of 4cm mineral wool + one layer of 4 cm pyramidal foam (that's what I got lying around). The silencer will be placed on a shelf along that tubing, which is above the door (further down out of picture) from where the air will then exit to the bedroom. Further questions: 1) if I place the fan in the final area of the silencer, pointing down, instead of exiting in a straight line, I will be forcing the air to turn and be directed down in the direction of the door, in fact I could even then place some extra ducting after that to reach the doorway level, will this help or is it overkill? I would much prefer to simply keep the airflow in a line, but then it will not be blowing anywhere near the door it is meant to exit through, just filling the area and exiting the door via the natural law of pressure equalization. 2) the vent sizes are 15cm diameter, and if I get the 15cm fan, I will be running the fan at half the speed, which will be enough for 3 exchanges per hour (one normal occupant, few heat sources). I could also go for the 12 cm version and run it slightly faster, would this also be okay seeing as I am using a silencer and mounting it after the last baffle? What clearance for the airflow should I leave at each baffle? 3) Finally on the studio side of the exhaust vent, I plan to place only a short a straight 20cm to 15cm reduction tubing, with mosquito netting stretched across it. The reason for not enlarging further to slowdown airflow is that I have little space, there as a square bass trap needs to be placed across that corner, is that likely to work? Here is a picture of the other side, inside the studio where the bass trap goes.
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I will be really grateful for any knowledgeable input, or pointers. Gregory
is this an air tight room? if so research dead venting. your going to need to exhaust one and the other bringing in fresh air so your going to need to inline fans. get the fantech ones.