Cajonat Posted January 1, 2020 Report Share Posted January 1, 2020 Looking at upgrading my kiln. I currently have a small 0.5 cf manual kiln in my house right beside a window. I'm looking at larger brand new kilns, but space-wise it would be best downstairs (unfinished basement - so concrete walls and cement floor). Is having a kiln in your basement a really bad idea fume-wise? It would have to be vented...but even with the best venting is it still a really bad idea? We had hoped to renovate a shed outside for the kiln, but having this little baby kiln in the house spoiled me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted January 1, 2020 Report Share Posted January 1, 2020 A lot of people fire in their basement and vent to outdoors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted January 1, 2020 Report Share Posted January 1, 2020 There's no problem putting a kiln in your basement. As far as venting goes, there are two good options. One, a downdraft vent which attaches to the bottom of the kiln. The duct to the exterior needs a 4" opening to the outside, just like a clothes dryer. No special double walled duct is needed, as the air from the kiln is mixed with air from the room so it's under 150F degrees just like a clothes dryer. Downdraft vents are great at venting fumes, but they don't vent heat coming off the kiln, which you may need to do if you don't have a way of bringing cool air into the space. The heat coming off the kiln will heat up the kiln room and the room above it. For venting both heat and fumes, you'll want a Vent-A-Kiln vent hood. It lowers down over the kiln and will exhaust fumes and heat. I highly recommend the optional swing arm for easier installation. The Vent-A-Kiln system will need either a 5" or 6" opening to the exterior, depending on which size hood you need. Again, no special double wall ducting is required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted January 1, 2020 Report Share Posted January 1, 2020 25 minutes ago, neilestrick said: There's no problem putting a kiln in your basement. As far as venting goes, there are two good options. One, a downdraft vent which attaches to the bottom of the kiln. The duct to the exterior needs a 4" opening to the outside, just like a clothes dryer. No special double walled duct is needed, as the air from the kiln is mixed with air from the room so it's under 150F degrees just like a clothes dryer. Downdraft vents are great at venting fumes, but they don't vent heat coming off the kiln, which you may need to do if you don't have a way of bringing cool air into the space. The heat coming off the kiln will heat up the kiln room and the room above it. For venting both heat and fumes, you'll want a Vent-A-Kiln vent hood. It lowers down over the kiln and will exhaust fumes and heat. I highly recommend the optional swing arm for easier installation. The Vent-A-Kiln system will need either a 5" or 6" opening to the exterior, depending on which size hood you need. Again, no special double wall ducting is required. As Neil mentioned above but to add, whenever an exhaust is added, especially to a house, code requires that fresh air from outdoors be able to freely enter while the exhaust is running. This is particularly important in houses as they are often heated with gas appliances. The ability for your new exhaust to overcome chimney and smoke pipe updrafts Is one of the often over looked risks. So per code, there are a number of fairly easy ways to ensure the proper amount of outside air is available anytime the exhaust is running. This becomes an issue of concern for the downdraft type exhausts as well, as they discharge on the order of 100 cubic feet per minutes which is significant over a twelve hour time period. If you pick from some of the hood exhausts on the market you will exhaust between 200 -500 cubic feet per minute (CFM) and need a design that allows clean outdoor air into the space designed for that cfm quantity and open during exhaust operation.. 200 cfm will likely remove a portion of the heat, 500 cfm likely gets most of the heat from a typical home kiln. This configuration coupled with outdoor air will out perform the down draft type vent and can be OSHA compliant. One simple typical basement compliant air inlet is two wall penetrations high and low, often 5” in diameter or more.(sized by CFM) One terminates at the ceiling to offset stack effect (heat rises) and one that terminates about one diameter above the floor. All sounds complicated but done well, not too difficult really and much safer than a seat of the pants design. A reputable HVAC company should be able to provide this quite easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 The 265cfm Vent-A-Kiln models seem to work well. I've never had a customer complain that they should have gotten the 500cfm instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cajonat Posted January 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Thanks so much - good to know it's not a really bad idea lol. I It has a fresh air intake (we have a natural gas furnace). Whether it's enough for the furnace and a fan? Not sure. If we go this way I'll get a proper HVAC assessment. Lots to think about - thanks again for your input...appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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