After i discovered this i started working on. Damn thing was a trap. You touch it, it's your responsibility. Unnacceptable the way it looks, the smell from bathroom and kitchen coming back into the attic.
I though i was smart enough to mess with it. For about a year, several versions, unsuccesful.
About a year ago it became what is seen in this picture below.
I have a variable voltage power supply for the fan. When it's hot in the attic (it can reach 120 degrees) i turn it to the maximum ant it cools the attic at least 10 degrees. At 6 Volt works but if one the neighbors forgets the fan like it happened almost every day within last 10 days, it won't cool the attic.
The one way valve that opens in the attic has been modified (re-balanced for a much lower flow). The others are plain valves for dryers and they work the way the were designed.
When one or two of my neighbors uses the bathroom fan the one way valves close and don't allow back-flow on any vent. There is one more one way valve at the other end of each pipe near the fan in each bathroom. Enough redundancy here.
For the kitchen exhaust, i used a computer fan fed by a 5 V USB power supply right above the microwave. If i don't use that one after i cook and stop the main fan in a few hours everything around it in the kitchen starts to stink really bad. I tried with a one way valve and didn't work. So that fan runs all the time.
In the attic i replaced the end of the pipe that was damaged and surrounded with a piece of plywood like in the picture.
Yesterday i discovered that for the vent shown in this picture above part of the tape was taken or blown apart. A small percentage of the whole flow was back-flowing. The two pieces of plywood that surround the pipe are cut around the pipe real nice and there is no much play. However i put new 3M tape and pushpins to secure the tape in place.
I also found 4 or 5 leaks in the other joints of the vents shown in the other pictures and re-taped them all.
Very difficult to work because they were numerous vehicles and small planes making noises like for every move i made. At first there was a big truck with pneumatic brakes that was releasing air every time i was breathing. This makes me very nervous and i make mistakes. My ground level neighbor also turned on the fan for about half hour. This always happens when i start working on those things. But since i write in here everything is quiet except a car or two.
woo
Last year i taped this piece of 7 inch flexible pipe only at the joins and where it was leaking through tiny wholes. At the picture date and time 08/08/2013 07:05:39 PM i discovered several leaks, only with the main fan on. The wires are from a 12 V computer fan that is powered by a 5 V USB charger. It works all the time to prevent back-flow from the wind and bad smell to accumulate in the 7 meter/6 inch exhaust that goes in the other side of the roof near the vent as shown in the first picture. So i covered it completely with tape, 3M, Tough, 7 dollars at Home Depot. The valve that shows open in the 2nd and 3rd picture was sticky and wouldn't open or close easy. I checked and find some chip of plastic (1 mm long) hanging from one of the side like it was trimmed with a knife but not completed. It was out of balance too. I re-balanced it and checked to see if there are leaks so i covered the valve's entrance with a piece of cardboard and set the fan on 12 V. As soon i was removing the cardboard, the fan was going maybe 30% faster and noisier. When i installed the whole thing more than a year ago i put 2 big tubes of GE II Silicone and sealed the space between the vent, shingles and plywood. I installed two hooks for the attic lid and replaced it with painted fiberboard when i moved here. The hooks have threads and are long and go over the sheet-rock and into the wood. Today i found one more hole one inch next to one of the hooks that was corresponding to the attic and one of the hooks was replaced with a shorter one and wasn't reaching the wood. Fixed everything.
Yesterday and today i found two more small holes near the bathtub, corresponding inside the wall and attic space. Covered them.
In the last few days there was "attic smell" inside. I'll see if it disappears after these fixes.
23 comments:
My neighbors took long showers, like an hour in total and used the bathroom fan. Dust came again after i opened the window. I looked on the second picture above and i saw a joint behind a beam that i didn't check. Went into the attic and parts of the tape one it seemed loose, taped over the old tape and made it tight, just came back right now. There was lots of mineral dust on the pipe around that joint. I didn't' have anything with me to wipe it out because when it vibrates flies away.
But there's more to it. The "human" factor. If two of the neighbors turns on the bathroom fan in the same time and the vent (computer type installed in the vent, after the pipes) fan is on low voltage (variable power supply) there's gone be a tiny bit of back flow on the 3rd pipe to the third neighbor. Because those one way valves vibrate and let some tiny amount back-flow.
Today(an hour ago) the neighbors immediately below took again long showers with the fan on. After about off hissing water pipes and fan hum, an idea cam to me. I went back to the attic to see if there's any holes left unsealed in the pipes. Because it's easier to see when air flows. This time, no much dust in the attic. I tried to wipe the dust on one of the pipes near where the leak might have been where i sealed it last (the comment above). No leak at the seal, could not wipe the dust really good with a wet towel because the flexible pipes are really wrinkled but made some dust in the attic. When i came back they stopped taking showers but i heard the other fan, the one at ground level. Then i felt some bad smell too. Tried and raised the voltage of the fan from 6 to 9 volts. Took a shower myself. Right after, the neighbors downstairs took off in two black cars, looking like dressed for a reality show with assorted faces. Another Sunday drama just took place.
The voltages on the power supply (adapter) are 3,4.5,6,7.5,9,12. Funny part is if is on low voltage i see the red LED shining more if i turn the bathroom fan on because the flow adds to the main flow and the fan it turns into a generator and adds to the voltage of the supply LOL and it reminded me on the superconductors needed in to feed the fans on a new futuristic design. I think tomorrow i'm gone start looking for a relay that could start the fan automatically.
I put 6 one gallon cut containers whit water in the attic to reduce dust. But with the fan on all day, it relly doesn't help. If there was something i could add in the water to help it.
Just recorded the sound in different places, bathroom, bedroom, attic, living. Again, it is not my fan but the one in the floor, from my downstairs neighbors. They came around 5 PM, stopped the fan for a little bit and started it again. But the tub was full with water, i filled it before to try and dampen the vibration. The sound files are here https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0#folders/0B-ShIhkErMIPcmZJVy1sdENNVFU
I added some stabilizing agent to the attic insulation, the same kind they used in manufacturing insulation, by mixing with water and emulsifying then spraying with a spray bottle. It was Ok for several hours last night. I went into the attic and saw the attic valve wide open alhtough the fan voltage was low, then closed. There are a couple of fans in one of the windows, now stopped. All the windows are open, from down stairs is coming dust with a chemical perfume. I uploaded a picture on Google drive.
In the last few days i had my nose irritated (bloody mucus) and Angela has a sore throat.
OK did it again, sprayed more sticky stuff on the areas i missed yesterday.
Can't remember where i wrote, every time i go in there i feel rejuvenated and energized for at least 24 hours.
Can it be that insulation dust probably made of volcanic rock could be used for athlete's doping?
Could this prove any theory of the Church of Scientology?
Now how could you test an athlete for a billion tiny needles stimulating you all over?
Could this be used in some millennial hoax?
Today i found a new hole in the bathroom near the pipe housing. The pipe housing is a rectangular area that takes space from the bedroom about one by 3/4 feet. Thick plywood, maybe 3/4 inch thick. Probably lots of formaldehyde in it. When ground level bathroom fan vibrates, or planes or cars pass by, the pieces of plywood vibrate against each other and fine wood dust FROM THE SURFACE OF THE PLYWOOD saturated with formaldehyde makes its way into the attic and through tiny holes into the bathroom. It stinks really bad. It's a sweet and irritating smell that penetrates everything including ourselves. That's why the good people on the streets, to defend themselves release unburnt fuel and oil through their exhaust pipes, with designated cars that drive in front of us on the streets. But its much more complicated than that. Today i just covered one more hole and wiped cleaned the bathroom floor and walls.
Don't know where i wrote this before, together and put a picture too. The neighbor at Nr.9 has a couple of fans in the window put together on a frame. They look like car fans. I'm wondering it they work at 12 V, AC or DC or even at a lower voltage. When it's hot outside he/she starts the fans, automatically. They create pressure in the attic probably through their attic entrance and blow the insulation and especially the smell of tar outside the attic. Today, it just happened and after i just cleaned the carpet, it all started to smell like tar again.
The left and center pipes in the picture were touching, yesterday. I went in and pulled them apart. Today, they were touching again. I pulled them apart again. When they are touching, one does not know where the noise is coming from and the noise it's much bigger in our bathroom when their fan is and it reverberates from ceiling to floor and back and it vibrates the whole apartment. The downstairs fan was on all day long and it's still on at 11 but the moment i separated the two pipes, they "came back" out of nowhere or somewhere very close. I heard more than one person on the stairs. To separate the two pipes i used an empty one gallon water bottle stuck between the middle one (mine) against a wood beam on the left of the pipes.
Ok their fan is of now.
What is not shown in the pictures there are about i don't know, 10 one gallon bottles cut at top full of water on the bottom of the attic floor to increase humidity and keep the mineral insulation dust from flying and a small tub with water and lime for the smell.
Ok that empty bottle didn't look good in there and i put a spacer between the beam and the flexible pipe.
She left at 6:45 and left the fan on. I tried and move some heavy objects around the apartment to atenuate low freq vibes. As soon as i move something a plane is passing by and makes al things inside vibrate around a certain freq. Soon after, the sound of the fan changes a bit.
I just adjusted the clock of my computer. It advances a few seconds every day. It was 1 minute 25 seconds ahead.
Yesterday i tried and covered the end of the pipe coming from Ap.6 downstairs with 4 cans of foam (Best Stuff brand, at Home Depot) The noise in the attic decreased but the one inside increased. When she came after 6 she stopped the fan so it was all night. In the morning they were two showers downstairs. At the first i climbed in the attic twice to check if the air is still flowing from down stairs. After the first shower, the fan was stopped. After the second (i started the computer too) it was left on and so it is righ now. I noticed stomping noises following me around everywhere i was going in the apartment.
I forgot to tell... Everyday something brakes around here at the right moment i mean the worst possible moment. Yesterday my kitchen scale broke... I had to replace the broken switch with an unused one and used the soldering kit.
In the balcony there is a smell of tar and sulfur and i'm pretty sure it's coming from down stairs and they probably get it from the wall and from appartment 7. I stopped the attic fan for 5 minutes just to be sure.
Needless to say i turned the fan back on right after righting the comment above. Before the two planes came to check what i wrote and didn't realized until now. I need the fan on because smell from the walls is being pulled in the attic and out by the negative pressure created by that fan. The smell accumulates inside the walls if not pulled out and because of the vibration it gets in the bathroom through cracks.
As i said yesterday, everyday something brakes around here. Today it was the weather station (Oregon scientific BAR388HGA). I put in some slightly used batteries (i use them until 1.45 V for camera then i reuse them for like these type of low power devices). But now it would not set itself (the radio controlled clock) and would not acquire signal from the remote sensor.
Today it started at 6 PM. I was cooking and backing ans somebody downstairs was dancing with me. Every time i was swearing in my mind, he knew and hit a cabinet door. Then, a couple of showers, at an hour distance. Never knew a shower could make those sounds. There was no fan in the morning so i slept all day. At no much good cause i wake up in smoke. It looks like there's a choice, between fan and shaking floor and walls and smoke. The crazy witch at nr.7 that talks to her dog while passing me, i think she's the one that makes the fire in the fireplace, but i see no smoke at the chimney, just black drywall. Honestly, i think it's useless, those guys will never give up.
When i went to the restroom last night @2AM they flushed the toilet down stairs!
There are a few steps that are missing here. Last week or so installed 1 ft foam rubber hose extensions for each of the three flexible pipes near the roof to damp the noise. Last one this morning. When i saw the pipes were messed up. Mine was disconnected and the others were touching each other. After i fixed everything i saw another guy disguised in the parking lot. Probably a big Hollywood type mask on his face and butt to look fat. But the same height as my neighbor at 2. He went to the entrance and i bet he went to nr.9 and then into the attic. When i realized, i grabbed the ladder and went to the attic and just before climbing the ladder i saw the guy leaving in a sort of grotesque walk in the parking lot. He climbed into a huge beige truck and left.
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