Exhaust Venting to Open Space

[Whitewall]

So I know this has been pretty well covered but I cant find a answer to my specific question. We are currently running a 2BBL direct fire kettle with no venting. The city however made us put a 850 CFM fan in the roof above the brewhouse. From kettle to fan is about 20ft. They also had us install a barometric dampener even though you can see light through the gaps in the doors( whole other conversation).
Soooo now we are upgrading to a 7BBL sytem with a direct fire natrual gas 300K BTU air burner and dome top kettle.My question is, what is the minimun I can safely do to vent the exhaust temp and steam kettle. Do I Have to connect it to the fan direct or can I just run a section aways up and let the fan do the rest. I do plan to use a condesate return on the steam vent. Thanks in advance for the help

[Whitewall]

Nobody has any opinions on this?

[yap]

Whatever scenario you come up with, it will ultimately be up to the inspector's interpretation of the building code as to whether he will pass it. I would run your plan past them and see if that will satisfy them. I'm surprised they let you put in a 2 BBL without a vent, but that just goes to show that every town is different...

Usually with a standard dome top kettle you will have a stack that leads all the way out of the building (either straight through the roof or out a side wall). I would recommend this route as opposed to something open to the room (assuming you can even get away with that). I wouldn't want all that excess humidity dropping back into the brewery making everything wet and (eventually) moldy.

I run a 7 BBL direct fire/forced air kettle. I have a condensate stack with drip ring that goes straight up and out the roof (stainless). There is also a burner exhaust that comes up, turns to the side a bit and then goes straight out the roof as well. That one is galvanized B-vent at the roof penetration and also has an atmospheric damper in it. This was all to meet code in my area. I really had no say so in how it had to be hooked up.

Get a qualified HVAC guy and/or the local officials out to tell you how it can/can't be done...

Hope that helps..

[Whitewall]

Scott. Thanks for the reply. The problem is the inspector is clueless. There original plan to install the fan above the brewhouse was solely based on 200k btu burner. So even though we're upgrading from 2-7 bbls the ventilation in their eyes is the same requirement. I don't believe the condensation will fall back to the brewery if we have a 850 CFM fan running directly above it but I could be wrong. We don't have any issues now but were using open kettles. It does get smoking hot in there because the brewhouse is on a interior wall so I would like to minimize the heat. I will probably start consulting with some hvac guys. Thanks.

[Whitewall]

Whatever scenario you come up with, it will ultimately be up to the inspector's interpretation of the building code as to whether he will pass it. I would run your plan past them and see if that will satisfy them. I'm surprised they let you put in a 2 BBL without a vent, but that just goes to show that every town is different...

Usually with a standard dome top kettle you will have a stack that leads all the way out of the building (either straight through the roof or out a side wall). I would recommend this route as opposed to something open to the room (assuming you can even get away with that). I wouldn't want all that excess humidity dropping back into the brewery making everything wet and (eventually) moldy.

I run a 7 BBL direct fire/forced air kettle. I have a condensate stack with drip ring that goes straight up and out the roof (stainless). There is also a burner exhaust that comes up, turns to the side a bit and then goes straight out the roof as well. That one is galvanized B-vent at the roof penetration and also has an atmospheric damper in it. This was all to meet code in my area. I really had no say so in how it had to be hooked up.

Get a qualified HVAC guy and/or the local officials out to tell you how it can/can't be done...

Hope that helps..

Sorry. forgot to ask if either your steam vent or exhaust vent were tied to a fan on the roof or if you just vent it out the top. IF you do use a fan. What cfm is it? Thanks again

[yap]

No fans needed in my case. If you go that route search on here for "kettle fan" or similar as I know there have been other threads discussing it...