Exhaust Hood Advice needed for Brewhaus

**EdWort** · 12-08-2008, 08:09 PM

I'm vaccilating between building my own or just buying an exhaust hood for the brew house. Home Depot has a 42" wide NuTone for $252 delivered. The specs are:

Assembled Depth (In Inches) : 20 In.
Assembled Height (In Inches) : 7.25 In.
Assembled Weight (In LBS) : 26
Assembled Width (In Inches) : 42 In.
Color / Finish : Black
Color/Finish : Black
Cooktop Light(s) : Yes
Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM) : 210 CFM
Depth : 20 In.
Energy Star Compliant : No
Height : 7.25 In.
Number of Lights/Bulbs : 2
Removable Grease Filter(s) : Yes
Vent Type : Convertible
Voltage Rating : 120 Volts
Watts : 100 Watts
Weight : 22 Lbs.
Width : 42 In.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100491180&N=10000003+9 0042

I have an electric HLT with a lid, so there is not much steam from that, but I will be mashing in a 15 gallon Blichmann Boilermaker and boiling in a 20 gallon Blingmann. The question is will this 210 CFM NuTone hood do the job when boiling 15 gallons of wort for 90 minutes? 42" is wide enough to cover both kettles. I will have two fresh air return vents near the floor, one on either side of the brew rig.

Thoughts anyone?

**BigKahuna** · 12-08-2008, 08:33 PM

Sounds to me like you'll be able to stand right there and never even smell the wort!

Think of a phone booth (If you're old enough to remember them (ED, I know you are)) is about 90 Cubic foot....you're going to turn a little over 2 phone booths worth of air every minute....Hope it doesn't pull the feather out of your hat or the foam off your beer.

**EdWort** · 12-08-2008, 08:42 PM

Hmmm, actually, the walk in cooler is 200 cubic feet, so it will be sucking out just over that much volume in a minute.

The neighbors up the hill will be smelling the sweet aroma of wort soon...

sigmund · 12-08-2008, 10:45 PM

Hood placement is going to make a difference. The further away from the top of your boil kettle you are, the less effective it will be. Obviously closer is a good thing in this case.

Just me being Mr. Obvious

**EdWort** · 12-09-2008, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sigmund

Hood placement is going to make a difference. The further away from the top of your boil kettle you are, the less effective it will be. Obviously closer is a good thing in this case.

Just me being Mr. Obvious

True. What would be the optimum distance from top of kettle to hood, still allowing for stirring, looking, etc.

**BrewBeemer** · 12-09-2008, 01:14 AM

Check into hood tops that Sears have. I recall in my rental house I installed a hood that's the same model that my friend installed in his house. He spent weeks just looking and testing what was available with 95% of 'em too low in the CFM's. I just got off the phone with him and was told it had twin squirrel cage fans and almost 400 CFM's on high. A slider pot for speed control and was a quiet unit even on high. I recall it was not cheap. You could feel the draft it makes while drawing air above the stove.
Lift a lid off a pot and get a large cloud of steam the hood sucks it up not just going against the hood into the room those results that low CFM hoods produce.
JMO's as I have a picky friend. Heck I installed a large squirrel cage ceiling fart fan in the rentals bath, it pulls the unlatched door open rather fast moving a large CFM volume. Fresh air in the bath is rather nice as well all the moisture the shower produces.

Another option if these manufactured units are too short why don't you modify it to the width you need provided it has the high enough CFM's, not some weak POS of a fan. Scratch build your own or have a sheet metal shop bend up a hood to your specs, you add the inline duct fan as they have rather large CFM's numbers depending on the exhaust duct size used.

Joe Camel · 12-09-2008, 02:05 AM

Hey Edwort, I haven't kept abreast on the brewhaus build lately and am not sure if you're adding air conditioning or not. If you are planning to air condition, you may want to look into a heat exchanger type system, an ERV (energy recovery ventilator). It will exhaust your air but it will use the heat exchanger to cool the incoming air and recover some of the energy you've already paid for in cooling the room.

Fantech: Heat & Energy Recovery Ventilators

Cheers

**mrbowenz** · 02-17-2009, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdWort

True. What would be the optimum distance from top of kettle to hood, still allowing for stirring, looking, etc.

Mine is about 20" off the kettles, this is plenty of room to stir, add grain, lurk, etc.. seems to work very well for pulling off all the steam/moisture..

**Bobby_M** · 02-17-2009, 11:12 AM

I think it would be cool to check out any restaurant surplus joints or scrap yards for a commercial stainless hood. You can run some duct work and mount the blower outside to reduce the noise inside. I have that NuTone and it's loud as hell.

**BrewBeemer** · 02-18-2009, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby_M

I think it would be cool to check out any restaurant surplus joints or scrap yards for a commercial stainless hood. You can run some duct work and mount the blower outside to reduce the noise inside. I have that NuTone and it's loud as hell.

Well it sounds like you got the "Tone" part under control and it's Nu also.
For the price of a higher cfm model fan you can spend that money on a hood bent up at a local sheetmetal shop or build your own then put the money saved towards a higher CFM fan. Nothing worse than working in overheated swamp conditions, brewing should be fun. Hell your this far along not a out house for a brew shed operation. This is fun spending your money.