Creating positive air pressure inside the boat

[blackrose]

I'm getting quite a bit of smoke from neighbours' boats coming through my vents - well, not so much smoke, just the smell of it.

 

I know it doesn't bother some people but I really don't like it, so I was wondering whether I could create positive air pressure inside the boat by using a 12v bilge blower inside the boat attached to ducting, going through a sealed porthole which hangs down the downwind side of the boat outside about 6" from the water where the smoke never goes?

 

Would that positive air pressure inside the boat prevent smoke from outside from entering through my vents? 

[MoominPapa]

You'll be making quite a bit of extra smoke yourself, to replace all the heat you're dumping out of the vents.

 

MP.

[The Happy Nomad]

1 minute ago, MoominPapa said:

You'll be making quite a bit of extra smoke yourself, to replace all the heat you're dumping out of the vents.

 

MP.

 

Was just about to say similar.

[Alan de Enfield]

Surely the only way to get a positive interior pressure would be to seal up ALL of your vents, doors and windows and have the air supply and exhaust pumped so as to maintain a pressure of more than 14.7 psi.

 

You might find your BSS man gets a bit agitated when he tries to measure your High & Low level ventilation.

[blackrose]

28 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Surely the only way to get a positive interior pressure would be to seal up ALL of your vents, doors and windows and have the air supply and exhaust pumped so as to maintain a pressure of more than 14.7 psi.

 

 

If I was pumping air into the boat then that air would escape through the vents. So yes it wouldn't actually raise the air pressure inside the boat but air would have to escape, which in effect has very slightly raised the pressure in the boat - otherwise why would air need to escape? The point is that it would force air out of the vents and prevent smoke coming in.

 

33 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

You'll be making quite a bit of extra smoke yourself, to replace all the heat you're dumping out of the vents.

 

MP.

 

That is a fair point, but it then comes down to whether my stove and my wallet could cope with that.

 

28 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

You might find your BSS man gets a bit agitated when he tries to measure your High & Low level ventilation.

 

I could just switch the bilge blower off, but in any case why would it stop him from measuring the vent dimensions?

Edited January 10 by blackrose

[Mad Harold]

23 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

If I was pumping air into the boat then that air would escape through the vents. So yes it wouldn't actually raise the air pressure inside the boat but air would have to escape, which in effect has very slightly raised the pressure in the boat - otherwise why would air need to escape? The point is that it would force air out of the vents and prevent smoke coming in.

 

 

That is a fair point, but it then comes down to whether my stove and my wallet could cope with that.

 

 

I could just switch the bilge blower off, but in any case why would it stop him from measuring the vent dimensions?

Can't you just move upwind of the offending boat?

[blackrose]

6 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Can't you just move upwind of the offending boat?

 

No, that's not an option. There are several "upwind" boats to the end of the pontoons. No other moorings are available.

 

I already have a bilge blower that I'm not using, so for the price of a few feet of flexible ducting I think it's worth a go.

 

I'll report back later on whether it works or not.

Edited January 10 by blackrose

[Jen-in-Wellies]

7 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Can't you just move upwind of the offending boat?

Or untie the offending boats mooring ropes. 😈

[blackrose]

Just now, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Or untie the offending boats mooring ropes. 😈

 

They aren't "offending boats", they're just burning wood and coal in their stoves the same as everyone else. Nobody is doing anything wrong.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

You might find your BSS man gets a bit agitated when he tries to measure your High & Low level ventilation.

Just tell him you are happy with it

[Jerra]

10 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

They aren't "offending boats", they're just burning wood and coal in their stoves the same as everyone else. Nobody is doing anything wrong.

They can still be offending boats while not doing anything wrong.  To offend all they need to do is cause displeasure or problems.

[ditchcrawler]

45 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

If I was pumping air into the boat then that air would escape through the vents. So yes it wouldn't actually raise the air pressure inside the boat but air would have to escape, which in effect has very slightly raised the pressure in the boat - otherwise why would air need to escape? The point is that it would force air out of the vents and prevent smoke coming in.

 

But the air may go out through the low level vents and the smoke still come in at the top. I don't know how many cubic feet of air per minute would need to come in to be sure no outside air came in through the vents. Normally for that sort of thing you would have weighted louvers on all vents that the air pushed open

[blackrose]

1 minute ago, Jerra said:

They can still be offending boats while not doing anything wrong.  To offend all they need to do is cause displeasure or problems.

 

They're not causing displeasure or problems, it's just the nature of living on a boat in winter in a marina, in proximity to other boats.

[ditchcrawler]

15 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

They aren't "offending boats", they're just burning wood and coal in their stoves the same as everyone else. Nobody is doing anything wrong.

You can see why some canal side property owners complain when often their windows etc are above the chimney level of the boats moored next door.

[blackrose]

3 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

But the air may go out through the low level vents and the smoke still come in at the top. I don't know how many cubic feet of air per minute would need to come in to be sure no outside air came in through the vents. Normally for that sort of thing you would have weighted louvers on all vents that the air pushed open

 

Ok, good point. I'll test it and see what happens. It's not going to take very much work to set it up.

 

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

You can see why some canal side property owners complain when often their windows etc are above the chimney level of the boats moored next door.

 

Yes, definitely, however perhaps they should have thought about it before they bought a canalside property?

Edited January 10 by blackrose

[Jerra]

1 minute ago, blackrose said:

 

They're not causing displeasure or problems, it's just the nature of living on a boat in winter in a marina, in proximity to other boats.

I felt that if somebody was thinking about making modifications to their boat it was because they felt the smell of the smoke was a problem for them.  If it isn't then surely there is , dare I say it, no problem.  If it is no problem no action is required, it would be illogical to say I am going to make modifications to my boat to rectify something which doens't need rectifying.

[blackrose]

9 minutes ago, Jerra said:

I felt that if somebody was thinking about making modifications to their boat it was because they felt the smell of the smoke was a problem for them.  If it isn't then surely there is , dare I say it, no problem.  If it is no problem no action is required, it would be illogical to say I am going to make modifications to my boat to rectify something which doens't need rectifying.

 

Yes, there is a problem for me, I thought I made that clear in my original post?

 

Someone joked about untying the offending boats and I explained that the problem isn't CAUSED by any offending boats, it's simply the nature of living in a marina in winter in proximity to other boats. 

 

If you want to argue over semantics we can go on all day, but I'd prefer to stick to the subject.

 

 

Edited January 10 by blackrose

[Idle Days]

From where do you intend getting your smoke free air from?

 

[TheBiscuits]

If it's low lying smoke it won't help because you'll be pumping it into the boat.

 

Having said that, if you have the bits just try it.  Can you temporarily tape the blower to a low level vent just to see what happens without buying ducting?

 

Is the smoke definitely coming in the mushrooms?  Just running your stove hotter might fix that.  You don't necessarily need positive pressure in the boat, just more outbound airflow through the mushrooms.

 

If it's coming in the low level vents instead or as well then you're going to struggle.

[blackrose]

28 minutes ago, Idle Days said:

From where do you intend getting your smoke free air from?

 

 

Did you read my original post?

[blackrose]

28 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

If it's low lying smoke it won't help because you'll be pumping it into the boat.

 

Having said that, if you have the bits just try it.  Can you temporarily tape the blower to a low level vent just to see what happens without buying ducting?

 

Is the smoke definitely coming in the mushrooms?  Just running your stove hotter might fix that.  You don't necessarily need positive pressure in the boat, just more outbound airflow through the mushrooms.

 

If it's coming in the low level vents instead or as well then you're going to struggle.

 

I'm not sure exactly where the smoky air is entering the boat - most likely to be the mushrooms as all the pontoons are side by side so the boats are moored parallel, but I suppose some could be coming through the low level door vents.

[Loddon]

Fit fans blowing outwards to all the mushroom vents and pray that the smoke doesn't come in through the low level vents😱🤭😉😄😎

[Idle Days]

19 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Did you read my original post?

Yes. If you are in a smoky area where do you intend draw clean air from? 

[Col_T]

2 hours ago, blackrose said:

downwind side of the boat outside about 6" from the water where the smoke never goes?

 

[john.k]

Do what everyone else does ...complain to the council,the EPA,the fire service,the police, ,serve them with legal claim......no one will tolerate anything any more.