Man Cave: Smoking Room Advice

[jhd65]

Hey Folks:

Could use your opinions on a solution for my home.

My wife -for Xmas - is letting me put in what she calls a 'man cave' upstairs. Essentially a 400 sq. ft. poker/pool room. She is also going to let us smoke cigars on poker nights!

I'm struggling with how to handle the HVAC system. I'd like thoughts on what you recommend. Here are the details:

- the room will tie into an existing HVAC system.
- we will install a Trane CleanEffects filter in that system
- we will add a FreshEffects system (serving only the man cave) to bring in freshair and vent out old air.

Is this enough? I don't want any smoke to linger into other parts of the house serviced by the common HVAC system.

What about a flush mounted smoke eater (commercial grade) instead of the CleanEffects filter.

I'd appreciate any/all thoughts out there.

Thanks!

Joe.

[Sleuth]

Momma's whole house gonna smell like smoke.

[cmajerus]

Hey Folks:

Could use your opinions on a solution for my home.

My wife -for Xmas - is letting me put in what she calls a 'man cave' upstairs. Essentially a 400 sq. ft. poker/pool room. She is also going to let us smoke cigars on poker nights!

I'm struggling with how to handle the HVAC system. I'd like thoughts on what you recommend. Here are the details:

- the room will tie into an existing HVAC system.
- we will install a Trane CleanEffects filter in that system
- we will add a FreshEffects system (serving only the man cave) to bring in freshair and vent out old air.

Is this enough? I don't want any smoke to linger into other parts of the house serviced by the common HVAC system.

What about a flush mounted smoke eater (commercial grade) instead of the CleanEffects filter.

I'd appreciate any/all thoughts out there.

Thanks!

Joe.

remove the room from the central system, use a mini-split heat pump, smoke eater or an HRV, exterior fire door instead of an interior door, seal all possible crevices or you will only smoke stogies in the house 1 time.

[HVACJOEK]

I also enjoy my cigars... As for your man cave, you will need a totally independant system from the rest of the house (or mamma will turn it into a sewing room) also the best result will occur if you use 100 percent fresh air in and 100 percent stale air out... a local contractor can help you set that up... good luck... have a Montecristo on me.

[cleanair]

I also enjoy my cigars... As for your man cave, you will need a totally independant system from the rest of the house (or mamma will turn it into a sewing room) also the best result will occur if you use 100 percent fresh air in and 100 percent stale air out... a local contractor can help you set that up... good luck... have a Montecristo on me.

Close but no cigar. This room is upstairs so it's an easy fix. Put in baseboard heat and a hi-tech exhaust fan(s). Windows will help, and make sure they are open throughout the occupancy. Don't even think about hooking into existing HVAC.

No matter what you do, all of you will still smell like cigars at the end of the night. Make sure to seal the entry door and create positive pressure in the room so all the smoke will go out the windows and exhaust fan(s).

[pmeunier]

Close but no cigar. This room is upstairs so it's an easy fix. Put in baseboard heat and a hi-tech exhaust fan(s). Windows will help, and make sure they are open throughout the occupancy. Don't even think about hooking into existing HVAC.

No matter what you do, all of you will still smell like cigars at the end of the night. Make sure to seal the entry door and create positive pressure in the room so all the smoke will go out the windows and exhaust fan(s).

No, positive pressure in the room will ensure that some of the smoke escapes into the rest of the house. You want negative pressure in that room, and the exhaust fan suggested by cleanair will take care of that. Otherwise, baseboard heat or mini-split heatpump (then you get cooling in the summer), it's your choice. Do make sure that the rest of the house isn't also under negative pressure due to the fan, to avoid backdrafting. I suppose opening windows would do it but it could be uncomfortable so it's likely not to happen. Another way would be to have two fans on the same electrical circuit. One pushes fresh air into the house (e.g., into the return of the regular HVAC system) and the other is the exhaust of that room.

It's true though, you'll stink anyway when you come out. Keep those fans running for a while after you're done

[drk]

A PTAC with fresh air and a high volume bath exhaust fan should be able to handle your requirements.

[mark beiser]

As others have said, the room needs to be totally independent from the HVAC system serving the rest of the house.
You wouldn't like the up front cost, or ongoing maintenance cost, of an air cleaner system that was capable of treating the air enough so that the house won't smell like cigars, lol.

Mini split or PTAC unit to heat and cool the room. If you are in a cold climate, you will likely need more heating capacity than a mini split can handle.
Most PTAC heat pump units have supplemental electric heat, but can be a little noisy.

You also need to maintain a little bit of a negative pressure relative to the rest of the house.
As others have mentioned, you can do this with a relatively inexpensive bathroom exhaust. You need one that will move 70+ CFM, not one of those cheesy little noise makers most people have in their bathrooms.

If you opt for some type of fresh air intake, you need to make sure the exhaust is removing more air than the fresh air intake is putting in, so If you did go for something like the Fresh Effects, you would still need the exhaust fan to keep the room pressure negative.
As drk pointed out, PTAC units have a "vent" feature that will bring in outside air, so I wouldn't even consider a Fresh Effects, or other fresh air system, if you go with a PTAC.
In a case like this, you want air to be entering the room through any and all small openings to the rest of the house.
To keep from sucking air from the attic and wall cavities, sealing the electrical boxes for all the light switches, outlets and light fixtures would be advisable.

All this stuff will likely cost you less than installing a Clean Effects and Fresh Effects, which wouldn't have produced the desired results anyway.

Don't burn money smoke eater unless you decide you still want it after giving the room its own source of heating and cooling, and creating a negative pressure.

[mattm]

I'll tell you what I did in my old house. Our room was in the basement and on one side I put in gravity dampers inplace of one of the windows and on the other side I mounted a dual wheel blower unit that I salvaged from a fan powered box in the place of another window. I sealed off the return down there and still used the existing hvac. It worked wonderful.

[dash]

Separate system,fresh air from an intake and exhaust ,negative pressure in the room.

Air cleaner if you so desire.

[pmeunier]

Wouldn't this be a good use case for an HRV? Connect the HRV's old air intake to the room and the fresh but conditioned air output to the rest of the house. You'll save on heating/cooling bills and produce a negative pressure in the room relative to the rest of the house. Assuming that the room is used often enough to justify the cost of the HRV, of course.

[dash]

You'll need some fresh air from the HRV or whatever to dilute the smoke laden air in the room.

[pmeunier]

You'll need some fresh air from the HRV or whatever to dilute the smoke laden air in the room.

The air would be coming from the rest of the house, which gets the fresh air from the hrv. If necessary imagine a grill in the wall connecting to the corridor, a supply register or an undercut door, whichever is appropriate -- the constant air flow (due to the pressure difference) should prevent the smoke from escaping.

[breathe easy]

CleanAir
In another thread you complained about the fact that most of the IAQ threads are concerning residential applications. There are many contributors to this forum that do a lot of commercial work. Over 90% of our work is commercial and I would enjoy any discussion.

However, one needs to be even more careful with commercial IAQ applications. For example, I assume your statement that the smoking room needed to be "positive pressure" was just carelessness on your part. AS the other posters correctly stated, it needs to be slightly negative pressure to keep the smoke in the confines of the room as much as possible. This is not a big deal when dealing with a home owner, but it would have disastrous results in a hospital. For example, operating an isolation room with a TB patient under positive pressure or with an immune compromised individual under negative pressure can have fatal results.

[cleanair]

CleanAir
In another thread you complained about the fact that most of the IAQ threads are concerning residential applications. There are many contributors to this forum that do a lot of commercial work. Over 90% of our work is commercial and I would enjoy any discussion.

However, one needs to be even more careful with commercial IAQ applications. For example, I assume your statement that the smoking room needed to be "positive pressure" was just carelessness on your part. AS the other posters correctly stated, it needs to be slightly negative pressure to keep the smoke in the confines of the room as much as possible. This is not a big deal when dealing with a home owner, but it would have disastrous results in a hospital. For example, operating an isolation room with a TB patient under positive pressure or with an immune compromised individual under negative pressure can have fatal results.

Yes, it was a brain fart. Someone covered that early on.

TB wards...good one. There has recently been or will soon be a new federal mandate requiring Hospitals to have a minimum of at least 10 isolation rooms with HEPA and UV filtration. I don't have any specifics but I am working on getting the facts. That would make for a good thread.

[genesis]

There has recently been or will soon be a new federal mandate requiring Hospitals to have a minimum of at least 10 isolation rooms with HEPA and UV filtration. I don't have any specifics but I am working on getting the facts. That would make for a good thread.

JCAHO would have to make the recommendation on the isolation rooms. They are so under staffed and lacking of understanding of modern technology, it would amaze me if they came out with an innovative idea. It sounds more like VA building speck change. I'll ask a GEMS coordinator at a VA next week and see if he has herd of the recommendation.