Ventilation

[showcow]

Hey guys.

I'm going to make the upgrade to electric/indoor brewing over the next year or so. You guys have all been a great resource (of course)!

As many of you have probably experienced, I'm planning my brewery in the basement, near the washer/dryer. Which means I already have 4" ducting from the dryer going outside the house. It would be super super convenient to not have to drill a wider hole in the house.

By super super convenient... I mean that I live in a condo/townhouse, and technically I don't own the outside of the house, so I shouldn't (not can't, *shouldn't*) make a bigger hole (yes, I realize that nobody would ever notice probably).

So here's the question: I would be running about 10 feet of 4" ducting, with one 90-degree elbow. If I use the vortex 6" 452CFM fan (and have 10 feet of ducting and an elbow after it that are all 4"), will that be enough to evacuate the ~1G per hour of moisture during a boil? (i do 6G batches)

I would guess it would be better to run 6" ducting all the way to the hole, then reduce to 4" after the elbow, at the exit (last possible moment) to reduce the CFM loss?

Or, do i just really need to man up drill a bigger hole in the side of my condo? quietly, of course.......

 

[Roadie]

The guys who installed my vent hood didn't like the idea that my hood fabricator screwed up and put a 4" pipe exiting the hood instead of 6" and said it really should be 6" for the whole run. They ran 6" the whole way (after converting that 4" to 6" at the hood. After the vortex I only go about 6' before exiting the house.