Industrial processes often produce contaminants that affect people, products, and processes, which is why your building may need reliable industrial exhaust systems. These systems are a crucial part of proper ventilation for buildings of all types, particularly industrial facilities with high levels of contaminants. Designing exhaust systems requires in-depth knowledge of the facility and process as well as a deep understanding of air movement, ventilation, and ventilation equipment. That’s why it’s necessary to work with our experts for installing or retrofitting industrial exhaust systems. If you’re considering designing a new exhaust system for your facility, there are several things to consider.
What Are Industrial Exhaust Systems?
Before we get into some of the details to consider for your industrial exhaust systems, it’s important to discuss what an exhaust system is. Exhaust systems essentially expel contaminated air. Buildings frequently harbor contaminated air that negatively affect everything and everyone inside. Air inside your industrial facility may be contaminated with:
- Heat
- Humidity
- Particulates
- Smoke
- Fumes
- Chemicals
When contaminants build up in the indoor environment of your facility, there may be many negative consequences. For example, personnel may have trouble breathing, contaminants may build up on products and equipment, or contaminants can cause unnecessary damage or wear and tear on sensitive equipment. Therefore, it’s essential to remove these contaminants from your facility.
Exhaust systems may be natural or mechanical. Natural exhaust systems use air’s natural buoyancy to help remove contaminated air. However, many buildings use mechanical exhaust systems, which utilize industrial fans to move contaminated air through the exhaust system and out to the outdoor environment.
Critical Elements of Industrial Exhaust Systems
To properly design a ventilation system with reliable exhaust, it’s important to consider general exhaust, local exhaust, and make up air systems. Each of these different elements of the exhaust system offers many benefits to your building. While each component should be customized to your facility, here is some general information on these necessary elements of industrial exhaust systems:
General Exhaust
General exhaust systems typically help move contaminated air for the whole building out and away from the indoor environment. These systems address building-wide contaminants, such as dust, heat, and humidity. Without a general exhaust system for your building, contaminated air remains trapped and stagnant, though small amounts may escape through cracks and openings in the building’s envelope. A general exhaust system helps increase ventilation by providing a path for contaminated air to exit the building.
Local Exhaust Systems
However, in many cases general exhaust isn’t enough for industrial processes. There may be many sources of contamination that need to be exhausted as quickly as possible. Local exhaust systems help with this. These industrial exhaust systems are typically located close to common sources of contamination. For instance, paint booths, welding areas, or near machinery that produces fumes and heat. Smaller-scale exhaust systems help vent these potent and potentially dangerous contaminants out of the indoor environment before they reach the general exhaust systems to help keep the interior environment safe and productive.
Make Up Air Systems
You may have noticed we’ve been talking a lot about sending air out of the building, but what takes its place? More air, of course, but there is a way to help control the quality of air coming in. Make up air systems are the partner of any exhaust system. These systems allow fresh, clean air into the building to make up the air lost through exhaust systems. There may be many ways to accomplish this. Some buildings use simple louvers to bring in outdoor make up air. Others may utilize fans to increase air intake to match the exhaust rate.
Design a Ventilation System: Placement for Industrial Exhaust Systems
Designing an exhaust system requires strategic placement of all the components of the system. Otherwise, you could face poor performance and continued poor indoor air quality. Of course, ventilation specialists offer expertise for ventilation system design and can help determine the right layout for your systems. We utilize not only information from a building analysis, such as sources of contamination, but also innovative tools like fluid flow analysis to assess air movement to find the ideal location for each element of your system.
There are also many building and mechanical codes that address exhaust and make up air systems. These codes may regulate placement for these various components of your ventilation system. Our ventilation specialists can help you create a code compliant system by checking applicable codes from your state and local governments. However, here are some general placement guidelines we may recommend for your system:
General Building Exhaust
While each system is different, typically general building exhaust systems are located near the top of the facility. This is because hot and humid air tends to move upward toward the highest possible point of the room. Therefore, it often makes sense to locate industrial exhaust fans in this area. Frequently, the outlet for the exhaust system is also located in the roof, though outlets can certainly be located on exterior walls if needed.
Most building codes require at least ten feet horizontally between each exhaust outlet on your building, as well as at least ten feet between exhaust outlets for separate buildings. They also generally must be located at least three feet above any make up air intake opening to help prevent exhausted air from contaminating make up air systems.
Local Exhaust Fans
Local exhaust fans and systems are typically located as close to the contamination source as possible. This is to help the system capture as much of the contaminated air from that process or machinery as possible. Outlets for local industrial exhaust systems are typically the same as general exhaust outlets.
Make Up Air Intakes
Make up air intakes generally need to be located away from potential sources of contamination. Because this is the system that provides clean air to your building, placement for these systems is essential. Generally, you want intakes below and away from exhaust outlets for your building. However, it’s also important to consider other potential sources of contamination from the outside. For instance, vehicle loading areas, smoking areas, plumbing vents, and areas with stagnant water. Otherwise, the make up air system may become contaminated with pollutants, contaminants, germs, and odors that can also have a negative impact on your industrial environment.
Creating Successful Environments with Eldridge
Our team at Eldridge is here to help you create successful environments through turnkey ventilation system services. We offer innovative design and installation services for industrial ventilation systems utilizing the highest quality equipment on the market. We have been providing quality ventilation solutions since 1946 and are proud to offer over 75 years of experience and expertise for your ventilation needs. Whether you need superior industrial ventilation control for existing systems or need a new system installed for your new construction facility, you can trust our team at Eldridge to provide solutions that suit your needs and budget. Reach out today to request a quote for ventilation design, installation, and maintenance.