Fume hood construction/location

[Phosphor-ing]

I will be purchasing a house in the not too distant future. I haven't found the right one yet, but it's only a matter of time. My question is what kind of considerations should I give to location of a homemade fume hood within the home? Also should I be aware of any drawbacks to using epoxy based paints or should I use Teflon based paints to coat the inner surface of the hood? I am planning to build this fume hood to be at least 4' across and 3' deep so space won't be a problem inside the hood. I have planned to make a perforated plate baffle (back and top) to even out air flow through the hood. And even considered a spray down system for the exhaust if I ever want to experiment with something requiring use of perchloric acid , I really doubt that will ever happen. My initial designs included an inline hepa filter and activated carcoal scrubbers before venting outside. Would this filter/scrubbers combination be adequate for a fume hood? Or how can I improve on this idea?

 

I won't be moving for a month or two so there is no rush to build. Just trying to get an idea of what I should avoid when selecting a home. Thanks for any help I receive.

 

If this is in the wrong forum please move it accordingly. I posted here in chemistry because I will be using this for chemistry, organics mostly.

[Phosphor-ing]

Also if anyone is considering building their own fume hood needs to read this.

 

http://www.saai-svc.com/technotesarticles/evolution.htm

[ecoli]

When they built my middle school, the construction team had no idea what they were doing. They installed the fume hoods, and connected them to the ventilation system, allowing noxious fumes to be distributed throughout the school.

 

Make sure you connect the fume hoods Directly to the outside.

[RyanJ]

When they built my middle school' date=' the construction team had no idea what they were doing. They installed the fume hoods, and connected them to the ventilation system, allowing noxious fumes to be distributed throughout the school.

 

Make sure you connect the fume hoods Directly to the outside.[/quote']

 

That was clever... imagin if chlorine or something had been pumped through it.

 

Also, don't some have scrubbers to get rid of chemicals that are bad for the environment?

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[Phosphor-ing]

My fume hood will have it's own piping to the outside air. I also plan to incorporate at least two activated charcoal/carbon scrubbers. My questions were about wind currents in the area of the hood. And about the amount of filtration necessary to "clean" the air pumping outside.

 

Ecoli you must live near me:D . The engineers, I use that term loosely, in my town built a little island at a large intersection. It has a flagpole and is called something to the effect of "freedom island". Anyway the crosswalk to get to said island is in the middle of a blind curve:eek: that leads directly to a hospital! They could have placed it 50-100 feet sooner in the curve and then both driver and the pedestrian could see each other! I mean who puts a tourist (lol) attraction in the middle of an intersection anyways!

[woelen]

I have built a small "fume-hood" from a kitchen fume exhaust, which has its own connection to the outside. I removed all filters and the like, in order to have maximum air flow. The amounts I use in my experiments are so low, that I'm not afraid of poisoning neigtbours or animals on the roof of our house.

 

A real fume hood most likely will have even more powerful fans and also requires spark-free fans, but the thing I made, serves very well for the experiments I do. I, however, do not perform large syntheses with flammable or very poisonous volatile liquids or gasses inside.

 

If I do an experiment, which gives off really large amounts of noxious fumes, then I do the experiment outside on a windy day, such that the fumes are not blown towards the garden of our neighbours.

[ecoli]

If I do an experiment' date=' which gives off really large amounts of noxious fumes, then I do the experiment outside on a windy day, such that the fumes are not blown towards the garden of our neighbours.[/quote']

 

not the neighbors you like, anyway.

[RyanJ]

not the neighbors you like, anyway.

 

Hahaha your evil... you'll never know who could be watching you

 

The ones in school are amazing, you can feel the air getting pulled out of them...

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[jdurg]

Per OSHA regulations, I believe that fume hoods you see in schools/univeristies and professional labs must have an air speed of no less than 20 feet per second at the opening of the hood.

[Phosphor-ing]

I'm going to be using a bilge fan for my hood. They are rated at 350-450 cfm with either a 3" or 4" inlet. They are made for flammable vapors so they are sparkless motors. The best part is they are CHEAP:-) costing about $25-30 +shipping. This should more than handle the face velocity I'm looking for.

 

Like I said before I'm still a couple of months away from this project so it is still in the design phase, but I plan to take pictures of the construction of this hood for all to see. Picture should tell a more complete story than my descriptions can. I'll even try to take a picture of a smoke bomb inside to prove it works.