Garage Ventilation
Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2023 12:49 am
As soon as I backed my MG into the garage for the first time, the smell of the exhaust (burning oil, rich mixture) and all the other smells of an old British car instantly permeated the whole house. Which brought forth instant complaints from SWMBO.
First change was to simply not back the car in any more. Keep the exhaust pointed out the door, and don't spend any time idling in the garage! But, the car still emits the typical odors just being parked.
So, I decided to install a ventilation system. I'm into it for about $200 total. Which, I figure is about what I'd have paid for a good car cover. Keeping the car outside would be the other (less desirable) solution to the problem.
I put dual 12" exhaust fans in the side window, controlled by a speed-controllable smart switch. That allows me to control the fan with voice commands, and also to set it on a schedule. I initially set it up to run 10 minutes of every hour at 60%. But, I'm probably going to change that to 4 minutes every hour at 100%.
To bring air in, I fitted a 20x12" aluminum return vent into the garage door. It's going to get a filter (so that it doesn't draw a bunch of dust and bugs into the garage).
This setup moves a LOT of air! Did the math on it (again). The fans are 940cfm and I'm running them at 60%. At 60%, they're moving 1128cfm. I estimate my garage at about 3200 cu ft, maybe less with the cars in there. So, I'm completely replacing all of the air in the garage every 3 minutes! If I run them at 100%, it would be every 2 minutes!
I noticed that the fans actually make MORE noise throttled down. The lower voltage makes them whine. At full power, you just get fan noise, which really isn't bad. That's why I'm changing the timer to 100% and just 4 minutes. Should be more than sufficient to keep the garage smelling fresh, and not let smells permeate into the house!
After I fab up the air filter bracketry, and live with everything for a few weeks to be sure it's all good, then I'll go through and do a final install with weatherstripping and paint. Will probably paint the frame of the vent to match the door, and paint the slats something like a dark grey so that they sort of match the garage door windows. Not that anyone will care.
First change was to simply not back the car in any more. Keep the exhaust pointed out the door, and don't spend any time idling in the garage! But, the car still emits the typical odors just being parked.
So, I decided to install a ventilation system. I'm into it for about $200 total. Which, I figure is about what I'd have paid for a good car cover. Keeping the car outside would be the other (less desirable) solution to the problem.
I put dual 12" exhaust fans in the side window, controlled by a speed-controllable smart switch. That allows me to control the fan with voice commands, and also to set it on a schedule. I initially set it up to run 10 minutes of every hour at 60%. But, I'm probably going to change that to 4 minutes every hour at 100%.
To bring air in, I fitted a 20x12" aluminum return vent into the garage door. It's going to get a filter (so that it doesn't draw a bunch of dust and bugs into the garage).
This setup moves a LOT of air! Did the math on it (again). The fans are 940cfm and I'm running them at 60%. At 60%, they're moving 1128cfm. I estimate my garage at about 3200 cu ft, maybe less with the cars in there. So, I'm completely replacing all of the air in the garage every 3 minutes! If I run them at 100%, it would be every 2 minutes!
I noticed that the fans actually make MORE noise throttled down. The lower voltage makes them whine. At full power, you just get fan noise, which really isn't bad. That's why I'm changing the timer to 100% and just 4 minutes. Should be more than sufficient to keep the garage smelling fresh, and not let smells permeate into the house!
After I fab up the air filter bracketry, and live with everything for a few weeks to be sure it's all good, then I'll go through and do a final install with weatherstripping and paint. Will probably paint the frame of the vent to match the door, and paint the slats something like a dark grey so that they sort of match the garage door windows. Not that anyone will care.
- GarageDoorVent.jpg (158.14 KiB) Viewed 2476 times