exhaust air dumping

dopemansdopeman

Active Member
Okay heres the deal , I'm setting up a room 7x8 in the basement. the room is seperated from the main basement witch is finished . the room I'm working with is all concrete celling and walls.

What I need to know is how safe would it be to dump all of my exhaust air in to the chimney ? There is 1 6'" hole in the top of the wall right next to the chimney, and there is already a 6" hole in the chimney capped off . the only other thing that runs to the chimney to dump fumes is the hot water heater. My only worry is will the air I plan on exhausting cause the hot water heater vent to back flow and dump carbon monoxide back into the basement?
 

tokezalot420

Well-Known Member
it should be fine i did similar thing w gas furnace .. i would also suggest c02 detector just in case better safe than sorry also you would want to run the exhaust 24 hrs or some toxins may come in if your fan it off since there is nothing blocking off once you remove cap
 

dopemansdopeman

Active Member
yeah I thought bout running the fan 24/7 to prevent the fumes from the water heater entering the rooms exhaust, but my concern is that the exhaust from the water heater is not blown in to the chimney its just free flowing , but the fan I got is 440 cfm , and that kind of air being pushed into the chimney has to come out somewhere. just hopefully not the water heater vent
 

tokezalot420

Well-Known Member
yeah the air should flor up if the entry is angles correctly that would create a vacuum and help exhaust the gas you would think
 

dopemansdopeman

Active Member
yeah the air should flor up if the entry is angles correctly that would create a vacuum and help exhaust the gas you would think
yeah thats what I was hoping, What I was thinking of doing is taking a 90 degree bend and shoving it in the hole to direct the air flow upwards. Or if anyone has any other ideals , comments are always appreciated. If that dont work I might have to get an electric water heater , cause thats the only thing being exhuasted into the chimney at the moment.
 

squirrelfooker

Active Member
The airflow will either push the water heater exhaust back out into the basement, or it will make it draft too fast and mess with the flame. There's a small chance it will work, but it shouldn't work. Try it and use a carbon monoxide detector, and pay attention to what the flame on the water heater does when you turn on the fan. Can you vent the water heater somewhere else? Out the sidewall? Venting a water heater into a chimney isn't a great idea to begin with.
 
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