Exhaust fan in townhouse garage

[Greg1707]

Today I was at a new townhouse with an exhaust fan in the ceiling of the garage. The fan was a Broan powerful fan with a six inch rigid duct to the exterior. The fan had a fire rated shutter. It looked like the shutter was attached to a spring with a lead "lock" to hold it in place. I assume heat would melt the lead and the shutter would close. I assume the fire rated shutter was required since the ceiling was fire rated. There were living areas above the garage.

Any ideas about including an exhaust fan in a garage?

 

[qcroanoke]

Today I was at a new townhouse with an exhaust fan in the ceiling of the garage. The fan was a Broan powerful fan with a six inch rigid duct to the exterior. The fan had a fire rated shutter. It looked like the shutter was attached to a spring with a lead "lock" to hold it in place. I assume heat would melt the lead and the shutter would close. I assume the fire rated shutter was required since the ceiling was fire rated. There were living areas above the garage.

Any ideas about including an exhaust fan in a garage?

What do you mean? Installing them in single family attached garages?

 

[Fred B]

Reason for an exhaust fan in garage? Is this in response to a charging station installation? If so there might be specific requirements for such. Never seen an exhaust fan in a garage other than related to above charging station or vehicle maintenance (not usually in residential environment).

 

[James L]

I installed an exhaust fan in a garage of a new home I wired last August. Reason was it is a single car garage that will have a kiln in it. Basically a small pottery studio.

They also have a 2-car garage with no fan

 

[Greg1707]

What do you mean? Installing them in single family attached garages?

This was a townhouse complex with about 60 units. They all had the fans in the garage. This was an additional expense and I was just curious about the builders/developers thinking about providing this upgrade.

 

[hbiss]

This was an additional expense and I was just curious about the builders/developers thinking about providing this upgrade.

I think you need to come up with a good reason to have the fan to begin with. What does it do and what controls it?

-Hal

 

[LarryFine]

I think you need to come up with a good reason to have the fan to begin with. What does it do and what controls it

If I had a garage, I would like an exhaust fan to create a negative pressure to reduce fumes entering the house.

It would be handy to have running when working on my bikes in the winter.

 

[ramsy]

My clients frequently ask for T-Stat controlled exhaust in the dwelling garage, since they don't like the heat doing laundry, or parking the car.

Then they look at me like a deer in the headlights when I say fan spins without moving air, unless the closed-garage doors can be modified for the calculated ventelation.

After confirming my story with a referred HVAC contractor, never hear about it again, and never see it get installed.

Nothing really outperforms open garage doors, except for a completely dedicated AC system in insulated & finished wall spaces.

 

[hbiss]

If I had a garage, I would like an exhaust fan to create a negative pressure to reduce fumes entering the house.

It would be handy to have running when working on my bikes in the winter.

How long do you run your car when putting it away? Don't you turn it right off?

If you were counting on it to remove the CO from a running engine while you are working on it in the garage, I wouldn't plan on living too long...

-Hal

 

[retirede]

How long do you run your car when putting it away? Don't you turn it right off?

If you were counting on it to remove the CO from a running engine while you are working on it in the garage, I wouldn't plan on living too long...

-Hal

Modern cars release almost no CO (unless something is broken). It’s still not too healthy to breath what they do emit. Mostly CO2.

 

[acrwc10]

I think almost all HOAs have rules about not working on cars in the parking area. it is normal to see exhaust fans in the garage of multi-family buildings, many have CO detection in them too. There is a building code requirement that a certain percentage of the walls be open, if they can't meet that requirement fans are used.