![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On Heat and Physics
Apr. 19th, 2004 10:05 amAs is usual in this city, temps shot up overnight from the low 60s to the low 90s. Goodbye until next season, oh wool blazer, hello summer-weight sportscoat.
An unexpected bonus to the warm weather, though, is that the venting system in our apartment is finally working. The building![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lioncub and I live in is a 1950-ish building, with lots of neat mid-century technology. One of the things I enjoyed in my old apartment on the 5th floor was that the kitchen and bathroom both had these vents that constantly pulled air out of the apartment, meaning steam and cooking smells were carried out pretty effeciently.
Well, when we moved up to the 12th floor (which is the top floor), we discovered that the vents which had previously been such a boon downstairs were a huge drawback that close to the top of the chimney. We got backdraft. Instead of air flowing out, as it should, it came back into our apartment. All of the vents with levers we closed, but the one over the kitchen stove did not close; instead it had a fan, which had to remain on 24/7 to keep the air flowing correctly. The noise was most irritating, but less irritating than other people's cooking smells.
On Saturday, before game day, I turned off the fan to see if perhaps it would be flowing correctly, or neutral, as it sometimes was during the day when people weren't cooking as much. To my surprise and delight, not only was air not coming in, but we had a good strength pull of air out of the apartment, enough that it kept the fan blades turning at a good clip in the proper direction. A quick check of the others this morning showed that they were working as well, so open they went.
I'm guessing it's a question of the season and the action of the chimney, but in any case, is nice to not have that fan running 24/7 - I like white noise, but that sucker was damned loud. Is good to hear one's self think while cooking, not to mention being able to hear someone talk without yelling in the kitchen itself.
An unexpected bonus to the warm weather, though, is that the venting system in our apartment is finally working. The building
lioncub and I live in is a 1950-ish building, with lots of neat mid-century technology. One of the things I enjoyed in my old apartment on the 5th floor was that the kitchen and bathroom both had these vents that constantly pulled air out of the apartment, meaning steam and cooking smells were carried out pretty effeciently.Well, when we moved up to the 12th floor (which is the top floor), we discovered that the vents which had previously been such a boon downstairs were a huge drawback that close to the top of the chimney. We got backdraft. Instead of air flowing out, as it should, it came back into our apartment. All of the vents with levers we closed, but the one over the kitchen stove did not close; instead it had a fan, which had to remain on 24/7 to keep the air flowing correctly. The noise was most irritating, but less irritating than other people's cooking smells.
On Saturday, before game day, I turned off the fan to see if perhaps it would be flowing correctly, or neutral, as it sometimes was during the day when people weren't cooking as much. To my surprise and delight, not only was air not coming in, but we had a good strength pull of air out of the apartment, enough that it kept the fan blades turning at a good clip in the proper direction. A quick check of the others this morning showed that they were working as well, so open they went.
I'm guessing it's a question of the season and the action of the chimney, but in any case, is nice to not have that fan running 24/7 - I like white noise, but that sucker was damned loud. Is good to hear one's self think while cooking, not to mention being able to hear someone talk without yelling in the kitchen itself.
