commercial laundry ventilation

GW

hello gang.

does this seem right? The pics are somewhat in order as you walk into the laundry room. I'm not into ventilation, hence my call to the pros.



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GW

pic two, I'll try to shrink it

the first pic is right out of a common hallway, apartments all over the place. You'll see a grille up high. This lets air into the laundry room

On this pic you'll see the fan, which is stuffing air down the duct. It gets much better, please click ahead.

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GW

pic 3

OK that was a little too small. Anyways, that blower is right inside the laundry room. On this shot you'll see the next room in is where the 4 dryers are. There only 22,000 BTU each. Notice the blower is in better view- hey, I should be a movie producer...

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GW

pic 4

Now you see just on the other side of the blower. This blower in on 24/7.

GW

pic 5

So there are 3 dryers on this wall,

GW

pic 6

Is it normal to blow into a filter? This is over the 4th and last dryer.

GW

pic 7



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GW

pic 7

Ok I give up, what da heck is this? The venting goes another 30 feet or so, and I've been told there's another venter at the end on the line pulling on the ducting.

I was asked to check this out- we have a metal guy, so I can barge in and straighten this mess out.

The building manager claims they can smell gas like odors. Anyways, there lint building up around the filter.

lchmb

I would get specific's from the maker of the unit..I have never heard of a dryer that allow's for a power vent system..As to a filter in line..No you cannot have any burnable material inline with a gas unit..the filter must go...

GW

Nope

They're being vented the other way- that blower is pushing the air. They are gas units, 22,000 BTU each, 4 total. The grille in the hall is just letting air into the space so it can jump into the blower.

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Larry_8

how many

dryers on the vent system and how long is the run? I used to be involved with these in apt. bldgs. and have seen some pretty sad looking vents which still dryed the loads.

If they were mine, I'd change the flex vent first as the friction losses are significant even with short lengths. If the door is ever closed, the makeup air vent looks a bit small, but again how many units per laundry room? The filter, while a nice thought, should go. The restrictions to flow must be kept to a minimum. Also, call Speed Queen or Whirlpool tech line or a large route operator in your area. Is Solon Company still in control of most of the machines around? They may have a good service guy who knows one end of a vent from the other.

Happy drying!!

lchmb

check with oem specs..they will tell you what is acceptable to the venting side of thing's...as to the gas odor..I would do an inspection to make sure the unit is running properly...also..check in the venting to make sure it is not plugged with lint..even with the blower in there look's like it will trap alot of lint creating a big hazard

GW

4 dryers

I need to get more detail, the guy called today and I stopped and looked at in on my way home.

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Unknown

Are these dryers classified

Type 1 Primarily for residential use.

Type 2 Designed for businesss frequented by the public.

This makes a difference as to how they are vented and connected. If you give me your fax number I will send you some information.

Unknown

The gas odor

may have nothing to do with how the dryers are vented.

GW

thanks Tim

413-527-3376

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David Holt

Gas Odors

The gas odors could very well be coming as a result of negative pressure in the building being caused by the constant operation of the vent fan. If the fan is drawing 1000 cfm (for example) out of the building, you must replace it with 1000 cfm of outside air, otherwise the building will go into a state of negative pressure. If the building is under negative pressure, every opening to the outside will become an "intake" for outside air. This will cause the vent systems conneccted to naturally drafting heating devices (like gas water heaters and gas furnaces) to "back draft" and could very well be the source of the gas odors.

It is very easy to test for this condition. Open/close all doors (interior and exterior) in the space as they would normally be during the day. Standing inside the building, take a smoke generator of some sort and create a stream of smoke close to the edge of an exterior door or window. If the smoke goes out the building, you are under positive pressure. If the smoke blows back into the space away from the door or window (which is what I would expect to see based on the symptoms mentioned so far), you are in a negative pressure condition. If you are in a negative pressure situation, it is easy to understand how the gas odors can get into the living space.

Make sure that you have an equal amount of "make up" air coming in to the space to compensate for the air being exhausted and you will solve the problem.

If you don't understand the concepts that I just explained, I would step away from the job because the potential liability is HUGE! Carbon monoxied poisoning is a VERY SERIOUS POSSIBILITY and you can be held liable if you make adjustments to the system that don't work. (It sounds like, it already doesn't work so I would get out of there unless you (and the customer) are committed to fixing it right!

Good luck!