I'm in Canada and have a basement suite with separate furnace and ductwork. Both furnaces are in the basement mechanical room (sealed..besides an access hole in the ceiling). The suite has drywalled ceilings. HRV plumbed only to the upstairs.
The kitchen in the basement is used quite often and cooking smells/smoke rise into the ceiling through the registers, mingling in the joist space and either passing through to the upper floor ducts or directly through gaps and such.
The kitchen already has a combined microwave/ventilation over the stove, plumbed outdoors, but it's not enough. I'd like to add some method of ventilation that I can control from upstairs, to clear out the smells and fumes coming through as it's affecting our health.
My ideas:
-larger CFM hood fan over the stove, very difficult to install because the microwave is already hung.
-exhaust or ducted fan installed in the floor joist space, venting to the front attached garage. Concerned about fumes from the garage filtering back into the basement, so I'd have to use an exterior vent/flap.
-squeeze a HEPA/Carbon filter unit into the joist space.
-add another stale air intake from the HRV, plumbed to the joist space.
We're currently running the HRV (plumbed for upstairs only) to clear out the smells, but because of the smoke and odor trapped in the basement ceiling/ floor joist where the duct work is, it takes over 2 hours of max venting to clear out all the doors, and this can't be good for our efficiency in the winter time.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. |