Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Want to set up a burner and hood. How many CFM exhast fan is recommended for a basement setup?

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I run a 600 cfm, but I am only worried about steam, and brew electric

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I will be using a Blichman floor burner converted to NG.

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Mine is around 400 cfm and it's not quite enough. I open a few windows and run a fan to make up the extra. I bet 600+ cfm would work.

When researching mine I believe the recommendation is ratio of 100 btu = 1 cfm. So 70,000 BTU burner = 700 cfm. You need an equivalent amount of make up air which can be forced air and also air volume in a room. I can run my 1,600 cfm exhaust with a 500 cfm make up air fan and a large volume room, my bar and rec room, with no issues. I usually crack a window to contribute more make up air. No issues in over 10 years.

Thanks guys. This makes it easier to shop.

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Hey John! Hope things are going well for you!

You will have the exact burner setup that I have. My exhaust fan is 400 cfm and I am in a big open room with a door leading to the rest of the house. It works OK. Occasionally it will get a bit humid in the brew room, especially in summer, but I have a window right next to the burner that I can open if I need to (rarely).

Be careful with anything over about 250 CFM with the makeup air. Any flame sourced heat (gas water heater, fireplace) can and will suck back Carbon Monoxide and/or ashes if you don't at least crack a window somewhere when you run the rig. Very large kitchen vent fans often have a smaller outside air draw fan somewhere else in the room or house to make up for this.

But with common sense you can go big..

UndeadFred, that's a really good point, for those of us with non-sealed-burner water heaters (probably most of us).

There have been times when I've had a downdraft from my water heater, just due to outside wind and a screwy air pattern in my house. Fortunately, mine burns pretty "clean."

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Safety first. Don't do this without Co2 & natural gas detector. Mine has read 0 the 10+ years I have been brewing in my basement. Many folks in this forum have seen it in action.