jimdoc said:Problem is you don't want them to fail, because when they do it will be at the wrong time. It is better to set it up to last, and be safe.
Jim
Oz said:4metals may be able to tell you how the big boys handle such situations. I’m just a small guy sharing what happened to me and what can happen to you as well.
Oz said:Ok, someone above mentioned 2 blowers of the cheap variety (or should I say doomed to fail variety). I am assuming they meant both blowers would run simultaneously so that when one failed at least the other still worked, and they still had fume control for their system but at diminished capacity. I love the idea of redundancy in critical systems, but let’s take this a step further.
One of my most harrowing situations in refining happened late one night when I was doing a sterling silver digestion as well as a heavy chlorine gas reaction simultaneously. Then the power went out!
I was left standing in the dark with no fume control or lighting. At a minimum I needed to immediately evacuate the area, but many other acidic solutions were in my near proximity in glass vessels and 5 gallon buckets that I may hit on my way out trying to maneuver in complete darkness. That was not at all a pleasant gamble in trying to leave the area without harm. I then had to get a flashlight so I could go back in and stop the reactions while holding my breath each trip in.
At a minimum I would suggest members have battery back-up emergency lighting with several flashlights in strategic locations for focused lighting in their refining areas. For members that do have proper fume control, they should feed the power to the blowers through Uninterruptible Power Supplies (like they have for computer systems) that have the amp hour capacity to give you at least 30 minutes of run time at full utility. Those 30 minutes should give you enough time to slow down or stop your reactions with ice or base chemicals as needed. It would also be desirable to have a low volume 6 hour fume evacuation system in place powered by battery that keeps your quieted reactions from causing harm to your equipment in the lab until mains power is restored.
It is just good old Murphy’s Law in practice, if it can go wrong, it will at some point. 4metals may be able to tell you how the big boys handle such situations. I’m just a small guy sharing what happened to me and what can happen to you as well.
goldenchild said:It means static preasure but... what is that?
Yes---filtered air, which is key to not ending up with a huge amount of vibration. Any moisture on the fan tends to trap particles, eventually leading to a fully loaded fan, which then sheds portions, leaving it well out of balance. I used a squirrel cage blower for my first fume hood.Joeforbes said:I use a squirrel cage fan like this one -
Old furnaces used them pretty often. They move a ton of air.
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