I'm outfitting a basement room with a wet darkroom. I need to vent air to the outside of the house the nearest standpipe vent is sink with a 1.5" PVC. Is that big enough to tie into and vent the air from the adjacent room? Or do I need a 4" pipe to vent air properly? Thx.
Can't answer the vent pipe question but will say this darkrooms are really on the way out I work for a large company 100K+ employees and almost the whole company has gone to digital. Large prints do cost more but you can bring the files to a lab to be printed!
I would myself go for the larger pipe since you are going to be in the room with the chemicals!
Wayne
Not a good idea, if I understand what you are planning.
First 1.5" is not enough for venting the darkroom (air not plumbing that is) unless you are doing some real high pressure venting. I suggest going with at least 4". Yea 3" will likely work OK and is used for most bathrooms, but even the worst bathroom is nothing compared to some of the stuff used in a darkroom. I have a 3" in mine and I wish it was at least 4" with a better fan.
The second reason is I doubt if your local plumbing code will allow you to tie into it for air venting, Even if they did, I would not want to, unless you like sewer gas in you darkroom or various sewer and chemical gases in your other rooms.
So bathroom fans are normally vented independently from the air stacks for the plumbing right? The basement in question is completely below ground level and under a concrete pad. So if I have to put a separate hole in things are getting more complicated (read: I need to punch a hole through the ceiling (floor of my garage) and then out a wall at ground level. But I'd rather have it done right than have a botched job. Thx.
What you need is the vent outlet that is commonly used for dryers. It has 4 inch duct connect, and is often installed in basements, has a damper to keep bugs and animals out.
You can use a bath fan instead of the dryer to move the air. Figure out how often (times per hour) you want to exchange the air, based on the volume of the room. You'll probably want to go with metal ducting to avoid incompatibilities with the chemical fumes and plastic ducting.
Don't forget, if you're venting air out, you also need a supply.
Darkroom under a concrete slab under a garage? How'd you manage that?
I've seen "cold war" era houses that had a bomb shelter under the garage. These days, most have been converted to wine cellars.
BB
Back in the pre-digital days (before 1995) I had a very complete darkroom in my basement and dryer vent was exactly what I used for venting. If I remeber correctly I installed two vents and put muffin fans in each one.
The dampers also kept the "dark" from getting out. :-)
Don
Wayne, you should cross-post that to Alt.Photography, then stand back and watch the thread spiral out of control! Some of us enjoy the hands-on traditions, and can still see more detail in silver grains than in CCD pixels. We'll see how long it takes for digital prints to rival the Ansel Adams prints that hang in galleries...
For mundane corporate needs, sure, go digital.
Dr. M
...truncated...
Just stay tuned. I've been predicting for years that as soon as digital photography has what the politicians can be convinced is resolution comparable to film that the death of traditional wet chemistry photography will occur. The hug-a-tree crowd, aided by ignorant politicians will outlaw it for everyone...but them.
RB
Dr.Mutant wrote:
Look carefully at the materials used to make the fan or blower and the ducting. Even acetic acid fumes will in time tear up metals that would be fine in a bathroom vent application.
RB
SofaK> So bathroom fans are normally vented independently from the air stacks for
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