Has anyone ever thought about installing an exhaust fan (bathroom ceiling type) in your train room to vent out some of the smoke from the trains? I am planning my layout, and thought it might be a good idea. I love the smoking engines, but the air does become somewhat smoggy.
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I have a regular oscillating fan and just keep the door open to help vent out the room. Nice idea you have there!!
Absolutely. I have two in my train room. One at the far end of the room, a second that exhausts through the roof.
Gilly
I have a bathroom ceiling type fan in the shop area of the train room. It is too loud to use when running trains. I can open a basement window.
Cheers from the Detroit & Mackinac Railway in Michigan.
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I have a basement layout and had a bathroom style fan installed when the condo was being built. I learned that a bathroom fan is not really big enough for a full basement without walls. Most bathrooms are pretty small. If you have a full basement, you might want to consider a fan on each end. One big fan might work but could be noisy. My friend tells me that JTs Megasteam dissipates more quickly than other brands and you might want to try that first as a possible cheaper option.
Ed
kaz
I plan on using a Panasonic 110CFM super quiet (0.3 sones), vented outside. You can't hear these fans run. My layout is only 17' X 16', so "anything is better than nothing"- my dear mothers phrase.(she's 94)
If you install an exhaust fan make sure it has an outdoor vent on it. Some of the 1990's exhaust fans only re-circulate the air in a room.
Lee Fritz
It's critical !
Run the basement clothes dryer w/ the no heat option(or do your laundry while in the train room), they move a lot of air. Bonus - it shuts off at the end of the cycle.
Can anyone recommend a brand/model exhaust fan that's whisper quiet yet powerful? Both of exhaust fans in our bathrooms are somewhat noisy. I assume that mightr be in part because of the high speed rotation of their fan blades.
If you like to smoke 'em up, the only problem with continuous run ventilation is that smoke can be swept away almost before it leaves the stack if there is too much air movement.
Whenever my furnace fan kicks on during heating cycles, I might as well turn off the smoke as you can't see it. So I let them smoke between cycles, and then let the HVAC clear the room periodically.
Jim
If you like to smoke 'em up, the only problem with continuous run ventilation is that smoke can be swept away almost before it leaves the stack if there is too much air movement.
Whenever my furnace fan kicks on during heating cycles, I might as well turn off the smoke as you can't see it. So I let them smoke between cycles, and then let the HVAC clear the room periodically.
Jim
I guess that's one advantage of having a totally electric home like mine, Jim. Don't have your HVAC problem to be concerned with and I'd only run fans during times when refilling smoke fluid but I still want quiet running fans so I can hear engine sounds. Bad enough my Fastrack interferes with engine sounds so I wouldn't want a noisy fan adding to that mix and completely obliterating the engine sounds.
As a bathroom remodel contractor, I have used many different exhaust fans over the years and by far, the quietest fans made are Panasonic whisper ceiling fans. I am installing one today where my trains will run. I am using FV-11VQ5, 110 CFM with only 0.3 Sones (super quiet). They make many sizes. In my workshop, I have a Broan 400 CFM. It is quite a bit louder and requires an 8" vent. I chose the 110 CFM for the train room because it works with a 4" vent.
When I finished my train room last winter I made sure we installed an exhaust fan. It is vented using pvc right out the side of the house. I don't remember the brand (might have been a Braun/Neutone) and it includes a light. Works great right over the center of the soon-to-be layout. I also put a dimmer switch so that it can run at slow and quiet speeds.
Wouldn't DREAM of it.I work hard to keep all of my smoke units working to GET good smoke.It smells good why get rid of it.PS: mlewski…your right, the Panasonic whisper fans are the BEST.I put them in all of my bath remodels.Nick