Properly organized ventilation helps to improve the quality of bath procedures and increases the durability of the hygienic building. How to perform inexpensive and reliable ventilation of bath rooms and achieve the necessary air exchange, we will tell you below. Content:
- Types of ventilation
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How to make ventilation in the bath
- Firebox in an adjacent room
- Heating chamber inside the steam room
Bath ventilation is a competently organized exchange of exhaust and fresh air in rooms without compromising their temperature regime and the safety of the entire building. It helps to provide comfort from being in the steam room, excludes carbon monoxide poisoning of people and contributes to economical consumption of heating oil. The ventilation device in the bath requires a responsible approach to this issue and is one of the most difficult stages in the construction of such facilities.
Types of ventilation in the bath
Ventilation is needed not only for a hot steam room, but also for other rooms of the bath - changing rooms, shower rooms and rest rooms. For each of them, you can choose an individual type of air exchange.
Its three types are most popular:
- Natural ventilation … Based on the principle of air circulation due to the difference in its pressure inside and outside the room.
- Forced ventilation … Its effect is achieved through the use of electrical equipment and appliances for injecting or extracting air in houses.
- Combined ventilation … Combines the principles of both of the above types.
What type of ventilation is the most optimal for a bath, we will consider further.
With mechanical, i.e. forced air exchange, a comfortable environment can be created in any room. However, such ventilation, equipped in the steam room, will subsequently lead to considerable financial costs.
In a combined air exchange, the outflow of contaminated air takes place with the help of an electric exhaust fan, and a fresh air flow enters in a natural way through a special channel located usually in the lower part of the room wall. Such a ventilation system has the right to life, but its use in a steam room will entail possible inconveniences, namely:
- To adjust the rate of air exchange, the valve on the outlet channel will have to be closed periodically. This action creates an additional load on the fan, which is undesirable.
- If the exhaust ventilation in the bath is too intense, then to maintain the high temperature in the steam room, you will have to additionally “feed” the sauna stove. But for quick ventilation and drying of the steam room, the exhaust fan is very useful.
If you look at the problem of ventilation through the eyes of a prudent owner, you will notice that a tool that can and should be used to organize high-quality air exchange is available in any steam room. This is a heater stove. With its help, air currents can move naturally due to the well-known laws of physics. Heated air is lighter than cold air. Using this truth and a stove built by hand, you can achieve high-quality natural ventilation of the bath without expensive costs.
Important: the selected ventilation scheme in the bath is obliged to provide five times air exchange in one hour, regardless of its type.
How to make ventilation in the bath
Consider the organization of natural air exchange in the bath with two options for the location of the stove insert: if it is located in a room that is adjacent to the steam room, and when it is present in the steam room.
Ventilation in the bath with the location of the firebox in the room adjacent to the steam room
The conclusion of the sauna stove firebox to the rest room or dressing room has quite obvious advantages:
- Lack of burning, smoke, dirt and debris from firewood in the steam room.
- The steam room is not cooled by the open door when the oven is being serviced.
- The firebox heats the adjacent room without disturbing the temperature regime of the steam room.
- There is always a place to store and dry the stock of firewood.
- Using heat-resistant glass instead of the metal door of the furnace, you can enjoy in the rest room the beautiful play of the tongues of fire, which has a beneficial effect on the psyche.
In this case, the connection between the furnace and the firebox is carried out using a furnace tunnel. For this, an opening is made for it in the common wall with a margin of 3-4 cm in the direction of increase. Such a gap is necessary for the device of thermal insulation, which protects the wall from strong heating and deformation during thermal expansion of the tunnel. Basalt wool is used as insulation.
Then it is necessary to lay an air duct for the inflow of fresh air into the bath from the street. The air duct is made in the form of a box or pipe, the end of which is equipped with a mesh that prevents insects and small rodents from entering it. The other end of the air duct is introduced to the bottom of the firebox and is located at a distance of several centimeters from the metal sheet, which is attached to the floor and serves as its protection against accidental ignition. The ventilation ducts of the stove and the supply air duct form a single system that connects the steam room space with the natural flow of fresh air.
Depending on the design of the bath and its interior decoration, such an air duct can be located in the space under the floor or along its surface along the wall. The principle of the exhaust duct placement is equally important. Its design is supplied with windows equipped with special latches. Air quality, its temperature and humidity depend on their location. A good place for a ventilation hood is a wall located at a distance opposite the stove.
At a distance of 30 cm from the ceiling, a ventilation damper can be cut into the air duct and with its help the intensity of air exchange can be regulated. Pretty simple, isn't it? But in this case, together with the exhaust air, hot steam will also come out. To reduce its outgoing flow and temperature drop, the valve will need to be closed. As a result, the flow of fresh air will decrease, and difficulty breathing will appear. To eliminate this unpleasant moment, two valves enclosed in a vertical air duct will help. One of them needs to be placed on the wall under the ceiling, and the other below under the shelves.
We open the lower valve in the process of accepting paired procedures. Fresh air heated by the stove rises up to the ceiling. Meeting an obstacle, he changes direction and gets to the reception to the lower valve. Here, one part of it enters the exhaust duct, while the other part of the steam continues to circulate. The resulting vacuum compensates for the supply ventilation box, supplying a certain amount of fresh air. As a result of the "cycle" we get a healthy air exchange while maintaining precious heat in the steam room. If it is necessary to heat the bath, the supply valves are closed, and when the steam room is ventilated for drying, they open.
When calculating air exchange, it is important to determine the cross-sectional areas of the air ducts. The transverse dimensions of the supply ventilation ducts are usually taken 20% larger than the chimney and 10% smaller than the cross-sectional dimensions of the exhaust ventilation ducts. The exhaust duct must be connected to the ventilation riser, which is led out to the roof of the building and supplied with a diffuser. The height of the riser above the roof determines the thrust force in the furnace: the higher, the stronger.
Ventilation in the bath with the location of the firebox inside the steam room
The principle of operation of air exchange with the furnace firebox inside the steam room does not differ much from the previous one. Here, fresh air inflows and exhaust air extraction are also carried out, the rules for minimum heat losses leaving through the hood are observed. But the main difference still exists. Namely, the pattern of the inflow of clean air is changing. It is supplemented by a supply ventilation duct, which is necessary to maintain the fuel combustion process in the furnace.
In this case, the process of heating the steam room is controlled by two doors located one above the other. At the beginning of the oven heating, only the lower door opens, while the upper one is tightly closed. This position prevents the intake of cold air from the street. After the initial heating of the sauna stove with the upper door open, part of the air in the steam room will flow through the opening from the bottom, heat up again and exit into the steam room through the door located at the top of the box.
After sufficient heating of the steam room, the lower door should be closed and the upper door should be left open. With the subsequent heating of the room, cold air from the supply air duct enters from the bottom into the ventilation ducts of the stove, heats up there and goes through the upper opening into the steam room.
After the air in the steam room has completely warmed up, both doors are closed. Heating adjacent to the steam room can be done by opening the door located on the corresponding wall.
A video about ventilation in the bath is presented below:
So, we have studied the main points of the correct organization of healthy air exchange in the bath. With a strong desire, you can do the ventilation in the bath with your own hands, but you cannot do without the help of an experienced stove master in this matter. The construction of a stove is a process that requires solid knowledge and significant skills. Indeed, not only the heating of the steam room depends on its quality, but also the efficiency of ventilation, which means our health.
