Safe Room Exhaust Question

[Barking Spider]

Your risk of a nuclear meltdown at Oak Ridge is so low that it really does not need to be on your radar. If you are worried about SHTF scenarios, and want to hunker down in your basement for an undetermined amount of time, you need to worry more about fresh air intake, than the exhaust giving you away. Run your exhaust pipes underground well away form your house, and cover them with shrubs. Not likely they would give away your hideaway. Of course you better have a plan for escape once they set fire to the house above you.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by fishbrains

It would not be advisable.

A residential space should have 4-8 air changes per hour to be habitable. If your safe room is 10x10x8, that is 800 cubic feet. Assuming 5 air changes per hour, you need to have 4000 cubic feet of supply air hourly, and of course the same amount of air leaving.

That translates to 66 cfm (cubic feet per minute) or about the air volume pushed by a bathroom fan. A passive vent simply will not suffice. 5 air changes is pretty low, you really should shoot for 8.

The situation that one experiences during the sort of storm where you need to seek shelter can vary from gale force winds and buckets of rain to widespread damage that results in power outages and extreme temperatures. It is therefore to important to factor LOCAL CONDITIONS into the equation. There are firms that build free-standing / underground / integrated into house type storm shelters that know from experience excessive ventilation is not desirable -- What type of ventilation do storm shelters have?

Anything that relies on electric motor is not practical for storm shelter, it might make sense to consider devices that are safe for ventilator on ships, such device prevent excess water entry and generally have a means to control airflow -- Air-Only deck ventilators: for yachts, workboats, liveboats and other small ships

[fishbrains]

Originally Posted by chet everett

The situation that one experiences during the sort of storm where you need to seek shelter can vary from gale force winds and buckets of rain to widespread damage that results in power outages and extreme temperatures. It is therefore to important to factor LOCAL CONDITIONS into the equation. There are firms that build free-standing / underground / integrated into house type storm shelters that know from experience excessive ventilation is not desirable -- What type of ventilation do storm shelters have?

You have posted a link from a website selling shelters. Maybe they know what they are doing, maybe they are trying to sell shelters by keeping installation costs low.

You are completely correct that a number of local situations may occur. Rain, wind of different intensities from different compass points, power or lack thereoff. None of those things preclude our need for air. If you want to ensure airflow, include a generator, batteries with inverter, or a DC fan. But don't rely on the hope that airflow is sufficient.

Anything that relies on electric motor is not practical for storm shelter, it might make sense to consider devices that are safe for ventilator on ships, such device prevent excess water entry and generally have a means to control airflow -- Air-Only deck ventilators: for yachts, workboats, liveboats and other small ships

Boats are a different environment entirely. They are not airtight, they are not underground. Passive vents work when the boat is underway, portholes when it is not. They also have onboard power generation for electrically powered ventilation on bigger boats.

Just because a passive ventilator exists does not mean that it will be sufficient for a storm shelter/safe room.