Blower to move heat from ER to IBA bay

[Roz]

Just installed a Mr Heater in our equipment room. Looking to add a blower through the cinderblock from ER to IBA to draw heat from ER into IBA bay.

Anyone have a good recommendation for a blower that can be used in a wet environment?

 

[HeyVern]

Grainger has a ton of different exhaust fans, or you can try a local HVAC supply.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Anyone have a good recommendation for a blower that can be used in a wet environment?

Can't the blower be in the equipment room?

 

[Roz]

Can't the blower be in the equipment room?

Blower is in equipment room. Vent goes through the cinder wall and into the bay. Ideally with a pivoting vent cover so water cannot be blown back into the ER. I will stop by a building supply store for a commercial exhaust but wondered if anyone had a recommendation. No difficult.

 

[Waxman]

You could cut a hole in the wall and put a galvanized pipe through with a fan like this. You could put the pipe through the wall and then 90° elbow to a downward pipe with another 90 at the bottom of the water would never make it back into the equipment room

 

[HeyVern]

Blower is in equipment room. Vent goes through the cinder wall and into the bay. Ideally with a pivoting vent cover so water cannot be blown back into the ER. I will stop by a building supply store for a commercial exhaust but wondered if anyone had a recommendation. No difficult.

Grainger will have Louvre through wall exhaust fans in aluminum, galvanized, and stainless steel any size and horsepower you want.

 

[Randy]

Your going to want to have a fan that has a high CFM rating to move a lot of air. One of these might work for you

4-inch Inline Fan

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[OurTown]

You will need a return from the bay to prevent negative pressure on your gas exhaust. That air you would be pumping in there has to come from somewhere.

 

[Earl Weiss]

You will need a return from the bay to prevent negative pressure on your gas exhaust. That air you would be pumping in there has to come from somewhere.

Wouldn't a source for air from a dry area insteadof the Bay be better?

 

[OurTown]

Wouldn't a source for air from a dry area insteadof the Bay be better?

Yes it would but would be colder if from the outside.

 

[Randy]

Our equipment rooms are pretty well insulated so we pull our make-up air out of the attic. We have a sheet metal trunk that runs up into the attic.

 

[washnshine]

I’m assuming you are doing this to assist in heating the bay but I am wondering just how much temp increase you will get from moving some ambient air from an equipment room into your wash bay. Even if your equipment room is heated to 68° by your Mr. Heater, the temperature of the air coming out to your bay might not make a huge difference, especially with intermittent door openings for customer entry and exit. The general temperature of residential forced air furnaces at the plenum is around 120°. Once you move to the various heat registers - especially at the extremities of the system, the temperature decreases to 110°, 100° etc. Im not sure how much gain you will get from moving ambient air that might only start out at 68° or so.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I’m assuming you are doing this to assist in heating the bay but I am wondering just how much temp increase you will get from moving some ambient air from an equipment room into your wash bay. Even if your equipment room is heated to 68° by your Mr. Heater, the temperature of the air coming out to your bay might not make a huge difference, especially with intermittent door openings for customer entry and exit. The general temperature of residential forced air furnaces at the plenum is around 120°. Once you move to the various heat registers - especially at the extremities of the system, the temperature decreases to 110°, 100° etc. Im not sure how much gain you will get from moving ambient air that might only start out at 68° or so.

While all that may be true, you don't need to "heat" an IBA, you need to keep it from freezing. It may be all he needs to get it to 33 degrees.

 

[Blanco]

Moving air from your equipment room is never going to work. You don't want to heat the air in your IBA. You want to heat the machine. You do this by installing the proper heater. A infared tube heater works the best for this. Its heats objects and not air.

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[Roz]

Appreciate the various ideas. Our Razor has the cold weather package (heated rails, blowdown and weep) so not really worried. 99% of the time the doors help keep the bay temp fine (lowest is usually in the 40s even when below 32 outside). When we had zero degrees outside for a few days during xmas we closed down the bay to preserve the heat at 32 inside the bay (actually the Razor shut itself down by design). Thinking that if ER is at 60 if we blow in some air when bay temp reaches 35 we can keep the place running when we have several days of extreme low temps. Perhaps it is wishful thinking, worst case is that we install the exhaust vent and do not use it if ineffective. We have an open square in the ER ceiling to access the attic so it can get new air form the attic if necessary. I am a bit concerned as the WIFI CO2 monitor is showing a higher than expected CO2 level (948ppm) so the exhaust may be necessary to vent the ER.

 

[washnshine]

Appreciate the various ideas. Our Razor has the cold weather package (heated rails, blowdown and weep) so not really worried. 99% of the time the doors help keep the bay temp fine (lowest is usually in the 40s even when below 32 outside). When we had zero degrees outside for a few days during xmas we closed down the bay to preserve the heat at 32 inside the bay (actually the Razor shut itself down by design). Thinking that if ER is at 60 if we blow in some air when bay temp reaches 35 we can keep the place running when we have several days of extreme low temps. Perhaps it is wishful thinking, worst case is that we install the exhaust vent and do not use it if ineffective. We have an open square in the ER ceiling to access the attic so it can get new air form the attic if necessary. I am a bit concerned as the WIFI CO2 monitor is showing a higher than expected CO2 level (948ppm) so the exhaust may be necessary to vent the ER.

Sounds good. Depending on the size of the blower, configuration of the outlet and amount of air you will be moving, you may want to place it at your entrance or exit door (whichever tends to stay open longer) and let it also function as an “air curtain”. So, when the door is up, it can help to retain the existing heat in the bay. I see units like that all over in businesses that have frequent open doors, like grocery stores.

You’d basically be making your own version of this:

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