so I have been having a problem in my grow room, there is a water heater in there and the pilot light keeps getting blown out. I think the suction from my can fan is pulling air down my water heaters exhaust flue and blowing out the pilot light... I can think of a couple solutions to this... 1.) make bigger supply vents in the grow room so air isnt being pulled from every crevice or 2.) remove the ducting on the water heater and let the exhaust into the grow room... i figure the main reason the vent on the water heater is for heat and c02 buildup, so aslong as is doesnt get too hot it will be a free c02 generator... does anyone know if this is unsafe and I should go with route 1 instead?
Water Heater in my grow room
- Thread starter Juan787
- Start date
Venting a gas anything into the house is absolutely a very bad idea, as is having backdraft as you describe.
You really need to relax on the negative pressure as you've suggested in point one.
-spek
AimAim
Well-Known Member
WRONG. Natural gas combustion produces CO2 and H20, not carbon monoxide. If it produced Carbon Monoxide everyone who cooked with a gas stove would be at risk of asphyxiation. Still I would not recommend circumventing the venting for your water heater, just a gut feeling "not good idea" on my end....and for what it's worth, your gas water tank's exhaust system expels Carbon *Monoxide*, not Carbon Dioxide (Co2).Venting it inside would be akin to running a hose from your car's exhaust pipe into your grow room
It can produce up to triple the EPA limit of PCB's though, not sure this is a real issue just sayin......
diamonddav
Well-Known Member
or maybe the thermcouple is just going bad! id replace it first and see if problem persists. only a few bucks at any hardware store. but DO NOT unhook the vent and do not completely seal up the water heater as it needs fresh air for combustion purposes as well. enlarging your intake vents would be usefull though.good luck
enclosing it wouldnt do anything, the air is literally comming all the way from outside down the flue and into the water heater... carbon monoxide is formed when there isnt enough oxygen molecules to become carbon dioxide.... also the water heater is only on when we take showers, and the pilot light is the size of a candle flame... the temp hasnt really fluncuated that much today with the vent off so I think im gonna leave it like that... once or twice a day it will kick on and burn off all the excess oxygen in the grow room... right?
Nutes and Nugs
Well-Known Member
Juan,
The air isn't coming all the way down from the outside.
The exhaust is going out the top to the outside.
The water heater gets input air from the bottom (the floor).
What you could do is make some ducting around the bottom of the heater that is fed from Outside your room.
Unless the heater is a Tankless or high efficacy I wouldn't use the exhaust for C02.
It will also get too hot in there.
Hmmm, so the pilot light issue has been solved, its not blowing out anymore, now only question is if CO(2) + Water Vapor is bad for that room.... i cant think of any reasons... my house hasnt blown up so i think im fine there... right before morning it is really humid in the grow room, up to 90%... then once the exhaust fan kicks on and lights turn on the humidity goes to 16%...