Exhaust for home setup?

[chris szlachetka]

Thinking about adding a laser to our home (third bedroom) and curious how you guys are running the exhaust port... We've looked at core drilling with a 4" circle saw, but not sure about putting a hole in our concrete block. We've also looked at running the exhaust tube through the ceiling and out of the soffit. Ideally we'd like the blower in the attic to reduce the noise when on. Any setup pictures or tips would be great!



Best,
Chris

[Paul F Franklin]

The problem with running any kind of exhaust, kitchen, bath, laser, whatever, out the soffit is that some portion of the exhaust will be sucked back into the attic by the natural flow of attic ventilation from soffit to ridge. Now if you don't have soffit vents for the attic then that doesn't apply, but most newer homes, at least, do have soffit vents. I don't think you want laser fumes in your attic. If you want to run it up into the attic, just bite the bullet and vent it through a roof jack.

[Gary Hair]

I used a window vent for an A/C unit for the two years I had my lasers at home, worked fine. I had a similar setup as Kev did, the blower in a waterproof enclosure right outside my window. I used a remote to turn it off and on.

[John Lifer]

I didn't want to cut through my basement wall, window was not in the right location, (would be best there, just make a 4-6" panel with your hole in it to use, Remove if you want when not using the laser, or make it more permanent.)

I ended up cutting hole through door and have my slide on inside to close it off. Door is metal and in poor shape, figured what the heck.
Blower is outside now under recently added roof over walkout porch. Remote controlled with a cheap 15A Christmas light switch/extension

[Wojciech Szul]

Avoid house room lasering if you can. Due safety and smell. But if you can't - make extra chimney pipe over the roof top, say 2-3 feet - it will add you extra suction. If this will be my house I will go for metal pipes (can be that corrugated aluminum, similar to used in cars). Laser sucks air from your house, so if you are living in cold climate there will be drop in house temperature - but you can do extra piping of fresh air to laser chamber, some lads have done that. Remember, there is quite big chance to got fire at laser, even if you stay beside.

[Paul F Franklin]

Wojciech makes a good point....think about making sure you have proper insurance; pretty sure regular homeowners insurance would not be enough....

[chris szlachetka]

Thank you for the suggestions and would love to hear more. The window was my second option and have built a little window mount. It's actually the same mount I used when surface grinding our concrete floors but with a 4" hole. I'm not crazy about putting it in the attic or messing with the roof either. We planned to use aluminum gutters (bolted, siliconed & taped shut) like our shop setup. We've never had any issues with fire and pretty much hover over the machine until the products are complete. I'm taking a stab in the dark but I highly doubt any home insurance company will cover this type of thing. It's everything but cold here. Very humid, hot and lots of rain. I've thought about connecting it to the dryer port but know we'd definitely get backdraft of smoke.

IDK maybe the core drill might be the best option... Thought about feeding the exterior port into a metal enclosure with a pan of water at the bottom to catch anything that might make it through.

[Kev Williams]

Third bedroom should have a window. Cut a piece of 3/16 or 1/4" thick plex an inch wider than the exhaust piping you'll be using (you only need 4" dryer vent) and the same height as the window. A little weather stripping will keep the air leaks out. Put the blower OUTSIDE, if inside it'll push exhaust into the house. If outside, all exhaust piping will be in a vacuum condition in use. Harbor Freight blowers hardly need any weather protection, just a cheap tarp is all that's needed, just as long as cooling air to the motor isn't obstructed. At the moment have 3 blowers, the one in the basement stairwell exhausts right on the ground behind some shrubbery, the other 2 exhaust along side the garage wall about 3' off the ground. No filters. I've been exhausting this way for 18 years with no problems and no neighbor complaints (there's 5 homes within 100' of my exhausts)..

[Joe Pelonio]

Third bedroom should have a window. Cut a piece of 3/16 or 1/4" thick plex an inch wider than the exhaust piping you'll be using (you only need 4" dryer vent) and the same height as the window. A little weather stripping will keep the air leaks out. Put the blower OUTSIDE, if inside it'll push exhaust into the house. If outside, all exhaust piping will be in a vacuum condition in use. Harbor Freight blowers hardly need any weather protection, just a cheap tarp is all that's needed, just as long as cooling air to the motor isn't obstructed. At the moment have 3 blowers, the one in the basement stairwell exhausts right on the ground behind some shrubbery, the other 2 exhaust along side the garage wall about 3' off the ground. No filters. I've been exhausting this way for 18 years with no problems and no neighbor complaints (there's 5 homes within 100' of my exhausts)..
Exactly what I did, a small second floor window with plexiglas and a dryer vent. No leaks or cold air coming in going on 10 years. Fortunately that side faces a street (corner house) so no complaints from neighbors.

[Fred Britt]

Just wondering the 3rd floor is a long way to carry a laser?

[chris szlachetka]

Actually this is what I’ve been using and not a fan of opening the window every time. I randomly leave throughout the day and this can be a bit too much at times. Most importantly we live very close to the Everglades and the bugs are insane. Damn devils always find a way in! we’re on 2 acres and the homes are staggered front to back. We barely see our neighbors. I’m thinking I might core drill the concrete and set the vent higher up the wall. I also came up with the possibility of running the blower through the drywall/garage being directly connected to the garage. That HF blower is pretty loud, so that might be the way to go. Thanks for the tips/advice everyone!