Exterior wall ventilation (not a window)
WydRynner
| Posted in General Discussion on
I am just finishing up a home theater room and have a bit of a dilemma. I need to create a wall vent on an outside wall to allow for airflow cooling in the spring and fall months. In the rest of the house I would just put a window in but we went to great lengths to make this room dark. I imagined a type of double louver arrangement but haven’t found anything available and I really don’t want to have to invent one.
Any ideas or pointers?
Thanks.
Replies
Small fan with spring-loaded or weighted louvers that only open when fan is on. If you think you'll want ventilation when you want it dark, you may have to have an offset duct, or something with a bend in it to keep light out while it's running--maybe something as simple as a plenum box (or just a small "hood" downward like on dryer vents) on the outside with louvers on the underside so light (and pests) can't get in.
Edit--I suppose the most foolproof and easiest (?) may be the same way you'd vent a bathroom with a fan--fan in ceiling and duct to outside through roof, or over to outside wall--then no light will get in.
Edited 5/25/2008 12:27 pm ET by Danno
Edited 5/25/2008 12:29 pm ET by Danno
Remote fan like a fantec and paint the inside of the duct black.
Switch it with manual or on a humistat
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Interesting ideas, I don't actually need to force any air, we will have a whole house fan (7k cfm) on when the temperature warrants, so I just need to create the open space. The automatic louvers of the dryer/bath vents might work well though.
If the whole house fan is drawing air into the room on warm days, the louvers have to open toward the inside. Problem with that is the wind can also blow the louvers open, and cold winter air just blows right in. I don't have a solution, just wanted to point that out. --------------------------------------------------------
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Do you want ventilation or open space?Louvering out will not work when the whole house fan is running. This system will need to work WITH what you are doing in the rest of the house if it is to be passive and not powered.
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It doesn't have to be passive, we usually choose what ventilation to open when we put the whole house fan on (based on the rooms we are using, heat, dust, etc.).
So opening could can just be manual...
Based on the suggestions I am thinking now about manual louvers on the outside, a Z duct to mitigate the light infiltration and either hardwood grillwork or hardwood plantation shutters on the interior.
I was hoping for a solution I could purchase but I suspected I would end up having to fabricate something :-)
Thanks.
google up Reggio Register for some of that configuration then.Paint the inside of the ducting flat black to dampen the light incursion too.
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Have an hvac shop make Z duct for you. Looks like a childs homemade periscope, highside goes inside to keep out the weather.
Mike
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Back in the early 90's when energy codes forced tight construction, there were some products on the market that did exactly what you are talking about. Passive wall vents that the user could pop open any time they like. This allowed the house to vent as much as the exhaust fans exhausted. One model had a pull cord/chain on it click it open and click it shut ... just that easy. Where are you located? If you are having difficulty ... e-mail me and I can maybe make a quick call or two and cut to the chase.
I would just put in a cold air return in that room to circulate air with the furnace fan as needed.