H-3 air ventilation

[doubleD]

Just curious. How painful has it been for all you other H-3s out there in regard to ventilation for your "hazardous fumes"? Anyone want to offer up the $ range you found if you were forced to do some ventilation, and did they require you to have a back up power source to run the system... in case your local power station was hit by a meteor and your still somehow decided it wanted to make free alcohol vapor instead of liquid and you just so happened to be touring a group of one hundred sparkler-wielding grade school children?

Also, if you're new to the process of starting a distillery please allow me to make a personal recommendation...buy the steel belted, kevlar Gorilla scrotum protector with 5-point groin harness to protect your tenders from the local building and fire officials. Never take it off. Because after you're finished with them your wife will be next in line!

bryan

[Valley Spirits Lee]

WOW, what county / city are your in?

Everybody else - STAY AWAY FROM THERE.

Good luck. I hope they come to their senses.

Lee

[will]

I don't think I've laughed so hard in days! Laughin' Hard - that's what life's about.

You're having these troubles because you need professional help.

I think that when you're walking around with a stupid smile on your face whilst clutching your scrotum, they see you coming (or about to come) and just want to F()K with ya. Chances are good that the fire marshal does not have the national fire code memorized, and is a fireman because he was not paying attention during science class. If you're dealing with code enforcement, you need an architect.

See there, it's easy: Architect trumps Fireman.

Just for sh!#$ & grins, Click Here (California Building Code site - references NFC)

You're the responsible party, so educate yourself...that way, you will lead (instead of being lead - around by your nose).

Will

[doubleD]

I don't think I've laughed so hard in days! Laughin' Hard - that's what life's about.

You're having these troubles because you need professional help.

I think that when you're walking around with a stupid smile on your face whilst clutching your scrotum, they see you coming (or about to come) and just want to F()K with ya. Chances are good that the fire marshal does not have the national fire code memorized, and is a fireman because he was not paying attention during science class. If you're dealing with code enforcement, you need an architect.

See there, it's easy: Architect trumps Fireman.

Just for sh!#$ & grins, Click Here (California Building Code site - references NFC)

You're the responsible party, so educate yourself...that way, you will lead (instead of being lead - around by your nose).

Will

At this point, I believe our architects are a bunch of pot smokers. We do have an architecture firm and a code consultant working for us. Hey, there's apparently nothing that an assload of $$$$ can't fix!

[grehorst]

Just curious. How painful has it been for all you other H-3s out there in regard to ventilation for your "hazardous fumes"? Anyone want to offer up the $ range you found if you were forced to do some ventilation, and did they require you to have a back up power source to run the system... in case your local power station was hit by a meteor and your still somehow decided it wanted to make free alcohol vapor instead of liquid and you just so happened to be touring a group of one hundred sparkler-wielding grade school children?

Also, if you're new to the process of starting a distillery please allow me to make a personal recommendation...buy the steel belted, kevlar Gorilla scrotum protector with 5-point groin harness to protect your tenders from the local building and fire officials. Never take it off. Because after you're finished with them your wife will be next in line!

bryan

It was extremely painful and expensive for us. And no matter what anyone tells you, the codes require ventilation after you reach a certain amount of on site alcohol volume. There are certain exemptions for alcohol stored in oak barrels.

You may be able to bluff your way past a less concerned inspector, but the laws are on their side and if they don't want to give, they don't have to. We have 6000 sq ft of H3 and as I recall the ventilation system has to exchange 10x sq ft of air in a minute -not exactly sure if thats the number, trying to find it in my notes- either way it's a buttload of air to not only exhaust but to "make-up"! If you're in a warm climate you may not need to heat the replacement air in which case open windows may serve as the "make up" portion. If your city requires heated makeup air as ours did, it can get real expensive. My original contracted quote was about $45k, somehow we ended up at about $28k. We were not required to add backup power, our city plan reviewer took that much pity on us and realized we would be present at all times when running, so decided it wasn't needed. Depending on the size of your space you may be able to find a used restaurant ventilation system for a lot less money.

I agree having a licensed consultant - architect (we used a PE) can be very helpful. When all is said and done, despite the added expense, it is nice to be able to eliminate some occasionally bad odors quickly- especially since we've opened a tasting room, and while short term it brought great headaches and messed with our buildout finances, long term it's a blip.

Good luck!

[doubleD]

It was extremely painful and expensive for us. And no matter what anyone tells you, the codes require ventilation after you reach a certain amount of on site alcohol volume. There are certain exemptions for alcohol stored in oak barrels.

You may be able to bluff your way past a less concerned inspector, but the laws are on their side and if they don't want to give, they don't have to. We have 6000 sq ft of H3 and as I recall the ventilation system has to exchange 10x sq ft of air in a minute -not exactly sure if thats the number, trying to find it in my notes- either way it's a buttload of air to not only exhaust but to "make-up"! If you're in a warm climate you may not need to heat the replacement air in which case open windows may serve as the "make up" portion. If your city requires heated makeup air as ours did, it can get real expensive. My original contracted quote was about $45k, somehow we ended up at about $28k. We were not required to add backup power, our city plan reviewer took that much pity on us and realized we would be present at all times when running, so decided it wasn't needed. Depending on the size of your space you may be able to find a used restaurant ventilation system for a lot less money.

I agree having a licensed consultant - architect (we used a PE) can be very helpful. When all is said and done, despite the added expense, it is nice to be able to eliminate some occasionally bad odors quickly- especially since we've opened a tasting room, and while short term it brought great headaches and messed with our buildout finances, long term it's a blip.

Good luck!

Most helpful, Guy. Thx for the scoop. We're meeting with the code consultant and architects tomorrow to get the final ruling.