Having a hobby room inside your home makes it more convenient to work on them whenever you have the time. If the activity involves pains, adhesives, or solvents, there’s also the risk that the fumes will harm your health without adequate ventilation.

Many hobby materials contain VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that are known health hazards. Aside from avoiding them entirely, the best way to avoid the consequences of VOC exposure by having an exhaust system set up in the hobby room to vent them safely and quickly to the outdoors.

Exhaust fans.

A fan, whether it’s built into a wall or placed in a window, is simplest and often the least costly way to pull contaminated air out of your hobby room, as long as there’s enough suction to reach the area where you’re generating the fumes. Depending on how tightly constructed your home is, you may also need to open a window somewhere nearby to create enough of a draft to exhaust the gases effectively.

Overhead hood.

Placing a kitchen exhaust hood over the work area can be an effective way to exhaust the harmful gases as long as the fan is the right size. You and the pro from Powers Heating & Air can determine how many air changes per hour (ACH) you need to remove the gases from your work area.

Balanced ventilators.

An ERV (energy recovery ventilator) pulls out as much stale air as it pulls inside. This appliance is the most energy efficient way to keep the air in your hobby room fresh. The core of an ERV removes the energy from the outgoing air and puts it into the fresh, incoming air. An ERV extracts some of the humidity from the incoming air and some models have air filters that remove pollen and dust.

Although proper ventilation seems easy enough, your short- and long-term health is at risk if the system you choose is inadequate or undersized. If you’d like a pro at your side, contact Powers Heating & Air, providing HVAC services for Peachtree City homeowners.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Peachtree City, Georgia and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 770-487-2040.