Outside Venting

[freedhardwoods]

I would like to hear about heat and a/c loss from people that direct vent their dust collector. The dc will be running for hours at a time. I would like to vent outside, but I want a climate controlled environment. I found this in another thread.

Well I never run it for super long periods of time. Since its been cold I haven't run it longer than 10 minutes and noticed the air got a little cooler but nothing that would make me regret my decision. I have a 5000w electric ceiling heater.

It is totally worth it for the increased performance, cleaner air and noise reduction. I can deal with a bit of a temperature drop.

In my previous business, either the planer, 4 head moulder, gang rip saw, or wide belt sander had lumber going through it 90% of the time. I had a Clearvue cyclone running all day venting inside through the filters. I had a sawdust blower connected to the bottom of the cyclone blowing the material into a silage wagon outside. A/C was a joke. Heating wasn't much better.

[wtnhighlander]

Outside of@Wdwerker, pretty much all of us are hobbyists. I doubt any of us get anywhere close to the continuous use you mention. I can't help much anyway, being in a much warmer climate, but perhaps there is a pro lurking around that will pop in and offer advice.

[shaneymack]

You didnt quote me but im pretty sure what is in green is what I wrote in a previous thread.

There is no way you will be able to keep up with either heating or cooling if you are vented outside and running your dc for hours at a time.

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[RichardA]

Last winter I was at my lumber supplier's shop. It was about 18* and the shop was warm from his two bullet heaters.  He began running about 300 feet of moulding through his european moulder, and by the time he was done, the temp inside had dropped to 22* from 60* and that was after 20 minutes of running the machine and venting the chips outside.  DC's suck chips, but they also suck warm air.

[mat60]

I dont do the amount of work in the shop I once had but I have always vented almost everything outside in a sawdust shed. I was so tired of dumping the darn bags and cleaning the filters. I use this for the plainer, shapers and drum sander exc. What a big difference it makes without no filters but on the downside I do loose allot of heat quickly when I use this system.   The table saw  and jointer each have there own small DC so no heat lost there. I heat my shop with a large wood stove and with long runs I may stop and let it warm up in the shop again.

[freedhardwoods]

These are the answers I expected, but I wanted to hear it first hand. @shaneymack Did the green letters give it away?   I couldn't figure out how to get a quote from one thread into another.

I suppose venting inside, unfiltered and wearing one of these would be the healthy thing to do.

[mat60]

Are you asking is it worth it?   If I had to vent outside all day and every day that would be a big no. It would cost me to much money.

[pkinneb]

I do not run mine for hours at a time and do agree with the noise issue but in MN I don't see how you could just vent it outside and not return that conditioned air to the shop. I do not believe my forced air furnace or central air conditioner could keep up. I don't want to even think about the heat/electric cost would be if I did do this. You could possibly do an insulated closet with vents back into the shop but my thought is that would probably defeat the purpose. I look forward to following the thread and see if anyone has a economically feasable solution.

[Pwk5017]

I wanted to explore a split exhaust system to give me the option to vent outside or to exhaust inside through the filter. There are 2-3 months out of the year where my HVAC is off or running very little. I'm looking at late June through mid August for high heat and humidity. Mid December through February for cold temps. This leaves me with a solid 6-7 months where the outside air isn't that different from the conditioned inside air. Exhausting outside for this duration means I would clean my filter about once a year or less versus the twice a year I do now. Add in increased performance and extended filter life, and it starts to make a lot of sense. I will replace cyclone filter in the next 6-12 months to the tune of $400. Venting outside 100% of the time doesn't make sense. Running tools at 11:45pm? Ehh, the neighborhood might not appreciate the noise, but you can barely hear me from my basement shop with the doors and windows closed. When it's 18* out? As Richard just explained, not a good idea. 

[RichardA]

I don't know what your filter looks like, but when I drove a truck, we had those tall round filters you see on the sides of trucks, and if I remember right, those filters only cost about $60... would that help you?

[freedhardwoods]

10 minutes ago, RichardA said:

I don't know what your filter looks like, but when I drove a truck, we had those tall round filters you see on the sides of trucks, and if I remember right, those filters only cost about $60... would that help you?

The cyclone filters are quite a bit bigger than a truck filter. It would still be worth checking into. If 3 or 4 truck filters = 1 cyclone filter it would still be cheaper.

[RichardA]

38 minutes ago, freedhardwoods said:

The cyclone filters are quite a bit bigger than a truck filter. It would still be worth checking into. If 3 or 4 truck filters = 1 cyclone filter it would still be cheaper.

It might pay to modify the cyclone to accept truck filters .

[Isaac]

I'm thinking about switching to direct venting my basement shop. Just trying to adopt the best practices, in terms of dust control safety.

I've got a small operable window in the shop already, so I think just need to rig up some infill plate and design a way to swap it out, I don't want an open hole into my basement all winter, after all. Anyone done something similar?

[AJ_Engineer]

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 5:10 PM, Isaac Gaetz said:

I'm thinking about switching to direct venting my basement shop. Just trying to adopt the best practices, in terms of dust control safety.

I've got a small operable window in the shop already, so I think just need to rig up some infill plate and design a way to swap it out, I don't want an open hole into my basement all winter, after all. Anyone done something similar?

Be very careful about this being in your basement. Direct venting introduces negative pressure in your house, and the air has to be replaced somehow. In modern houses that are all sealed up tight you will get make-up air coming down the vent pipe. So now your natural gas appliances can't vent the exhaust gases and that's how you get carbon monoxide poisoning.

In terms of the window I would just fashion up a plate that fits in the space with the window fully open. Remove plate and close window when done.

[Isaac]

7 minutes ago, AJ_Engineer said:

Be very careful about this being in your basement. Direct venting introduces negative pressure in your house, and the air has to be replaced somehow. In modern houses that are all sealed up tight you will get make-up air coming down the vent pipe. So now your natural gas appliances can't vent the exhaust gases and that's how you get carbon monoxide poisoning.

In terms of the window I would just fashion up a plate that fits in the space with the window fully open. Remove plate and close window when done.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Mine is an older house and I tend to not run my system for extended periods, but I will keep this suggestion in mind. I think I'll pick up an extra CO monitor and place it near my boiler and water heater just to track for any changes. Can't hurt.

Right now, I've got a filter bag on the end of my blower right now, and everything I've read suggests I'm probably just not really collecting all the fine dust, which leaves me wanting to send it outside and be done with it. 

[JosephThomas]

Has anyone every looked into a heat-exchange system when venting outside? They can't be 100% efficient obviously, but the concept would certainly help mitigate the temp change when rapidly exchanging air.