Get a few 50lbs bags of coffee beans to set out in the corners. Coffee beans absorb and neutralize all other odors, plus they'll make the room smell great... if you like coffee.
My days of lackadaisical outdoor pipe smoking are ending.
- Thread starter daimyo
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Trailboss has a good idea with the exhaust fan. When I had a darkroom, I had a 300CFM exhaust hood over the fixer and toner trays. I could smoke a cigar in there and not smell it in the house. The downside is that you are exhausting conditioned air and pulling in air from outdoors, so your heating bill will rake a whack.
HEPA works well, but you need a sufficient CFM/air changer per hour for it to be effective. Woodworking supply companies like Grizzly have HEPA units that will work well for this, with the addition of a charcoal filter layer, for a lot less than a flimsy consumer unit from Best Buy.
An Ozone generator will work very well for eliminating odor, but inhaling ozone is quite bad for your lungs. Ozone (O3) has a fairly short half-life, before it degrades back to O2, so if you can leave the room and switch on the ozone, then you are in business. Better yet, turn on the exhaust fan once the smoke odor is gone.
Best best would be to move to the garage, and run a small exhaust fan out there.
HEPA works well, but you need a sufficient CFM/air changer per hour for it to be effective. Woodworking supply companies like Grizzly have HEPA units that will work well for this, with the addition of a charcoal filter layer, for a lot less than a flimsy consumer unit from Best Buy.
An Ozone generator will work very well for eliminating odor, but inhaling ozone is quite bad for your lungs. Ozone (O3) has a fairly short half-life, before it degrades back to O2, so if you can leave the room and switch on the ozone, then you are in business. Better yet, turn on the exhaust fan once the smoke odor is gone.
Best best would be to move to the garage, and run a small exhaust fan out there.
since you are upstairs you don't need a kitchen hood type rig.. one for a bathroom will be enough and won't end up sucking much heat or a/c out with the smoke. spend the extra $$$ and get one of the silence units. depending how your room is located you could wall mount it and vent out the side or the house saving a lot of work.
or I have had one of these in my basement window for a few years and it sucks the smoke out just fine. no tools requires.
fan
or I have had one of these in my basement window for a few years and it sucks the smoke out just fine. no tools requires.
fan
Second the use of a HEPA filtration unit. I have a modest one that sits on my desk and works beautifully. Of course if someone comes in the room while I'm smoking they'll smell the smoke but if I let it run an hour or so after I put the pipe down the odor is virtually undetectable.
If you would like, I can help you build an ozone generator, for about 1/10th of the cost of a manufactured unit. It's pretty easy, I did it when I made a pipe deodorizer cabinet.
Ventilation is a well-studied subject. It is much easier and more efficient to get rid of a pollutant at it's source, rather than to wait for it to fill a room. Put a kitchen hood over the area where you are smoking, provide for a sufficient return or replacement air flow, and you are GTG.
Check the scratch and dent section of stores, or ask the sales folks about damaged hoods they might have in the back. I picked up a high-end stainless hood, with two squirrel-cage blowers, grease traps and halogen lighting, for $100. Had a nice crease across one side (the side that will go up against the wall), but the rest looked like new. It was a $1500 hood.
Ventilation is a well-studied subject. It is much easier and more efficient to get rid of a pollutant at it's source, rather than to wait for it to fill a room. Put a kitchen hood over the area where you are smoking, provide for a sufficient return or replacement air flow, and you are GTG.
Check the scratch and dent section of stores, or ask the sales folks about damaged hoods they might have in the back. I picked up a high-end stainless hood, with two squirrel-cage blowers, grease traps and halogen lighting, for $100. Had a nice crease across one side (the side that will go up against the wall), but the rest looked like new. It was a $1500 hood.
Regretfully, with winter approaching there will be a lot more discussions like this coming up as there was last winter, as I'm sure there was with winters before. Great information as always, but it's just a shame that it’s needed and something that obviously must be dealt with by many pipe smokers.
Before I know it (once again) I'm going to have to deal with missing the luxury of simply sitting on my front porch, relaxing with a beverage and lighting up without a worry about the aftermath. ~sigh~
Before I know it (once again) I'm going to have to deal with missing the luxury of simply sitting on my front porch, relaxing with a beverage and lighting up without a worry about the aftermath. ~sigh~
SWMBO built me a man cave in the basement. It has a desk, a recliner, television, stereo, and a HEPA air purifier with a carbon filter.
Thank you for all the feedback. I cannot blame my wife as she is very sensitive to smells and when we met, I was only smoking a cigar every few months and a pipe even less. After our children were born I stopped all together for many years. When I did start back up, it was back to a handful of sticks a year and an occasional pipe. My recent smoking has been the most I've smoked since before she met me and she has been quite understanding. There seems to be enough here to do some serious damage to the smoke smell and I think I'll start of with a quality HEPA that can move some air, ozium and a Lampe Berger. Once I recoup funds I might just invest in an ozone generator. Woodsroad, very cool build there, although I'm not sure I would want to fuss with it. My electrical knowledge stops ate being able to wire light fixtures and switches. I once wired up a motor for my 2" belt grinder for knife smithing but i had someone double check me so I didn't fry anything... myself included. Cosmic, that's a great idea although I'm a bit scared to check on the pricing of 50# bags of coffee, especially after they are shipped to Alaska!
Well, there are 32 pages of my stream of conscious problem solving there. Long and short of it: 120v to the transformer (wire a switch in there, hot/black goes to the switch), output of the transformer goes to the ozone plate. Mount a fan or blower to blow over the plate and distribute the ozone. Don't touch the plate while it's energized. Mount it all in a plastic box, Done.
+1 with dochudson. I have a two way fan that I use. Mine is made by Melvin and is quite old, but I only paid $15.00 for it at a flea market. It is 12 in. wide and 22in. long.
Stick it in a window and put a chair, table and lamp beside it and light up. It sucks out almost all the smoke.
Stick it in a window and put a chair, table and lamp beside it and light up. It sucks out almost all the smoke.
I'll be moving to my garage/workshop shortly as well, hopefully not until the end of October. But summer mornings on the patio in shorts and a t-shirt are fleeting. I do need to install a bathroom exhaust fan in the ceiling of my smoking area. (which will unfortunately suck out the heat as well).
After reading all of the posts, I went and kissed my darlin' wife. This is one woman that truly doesn't mind if I smoke inside during the winter (aros). All of you have my sympathy.
I live in Florida, originally from Rhode Island. Every-time the temperature drops bellow 60 here I see people in heavy jackets.. it's crazy..
So I have Infinite summer and spring here.. when the sun isn't burning me to cinders.
So I have Infinite summer and spring here.. when the sun isn't burning me to cinders.
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