Every time you turn on range fan and bathroom fans you’ll be drawing air from smelly drains and neighbours. I think. I’m going off the idea in the below graphic to clean the air in our house for the upcoming pollution season.
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Thanks for sharing that diagram and your thoughts. Yes, I’ve been pondering this issue of exhaust fans and negative air pressure, and experimenting with different combinations of on/off fans and open/closed windows (as heat and noise and rain permit)… Even with all fans off apparently the smelly stuff from neighbors sometimes find their way into our apartment. Hoping the newly installed roof fan will draw those bad odors out of building vs. let them seep into our apt.
The question remains: Which would do this job best?
- a stronger electric fan that runs maybe 45 minutes out of every hour, or
- a weaker solar fan that runs supposedly continuously.
Now I’m also pondering the question of supply airflow for the building overall (though I’m guessing there are enough leaks etc through all the apartments that it may not be an issue of too little supply; perhaps more likely too much supply…)
Hot air rising through the stairwell and open windows in your pad could be sucking the stink through your place?
Edit: The last apartment I lived in, I stuffed sticky backed “weather stripping”(?) around the door so there was a good seal and no air coming in that way.
Don’t think stairwell is causing much odor. When we open the door toward stairwell we can often smell mold so we try to quickly close it. We think that’s from the air shaft near the elevator and in general the air between walls and floors/ceilings of the building. The stairwell and shared area near elevator usually don’t have any odor other than the distinct mold odor.
In contrast, the master bedroom and closet get intermittent (but too frequent!) pungent fecal odor as well as occasional other odors that may be from kitchens or bathrooms of other apartments or restaurants on first floor, and master bath usually not so much. The other bathroom meanwhile has a different distinct and fairly constant odor (reminiscent of urine but not quite). And sometimes the apartment as a whole can have the odor of a sewer (not fecal just old sewer water/stench). It’s a variety pack of odors here, but not much from stairwell.
My building condo association or whatever is meeting today to decide between two roof ventilation fan options to help with odor/stink in building (and esp. our apartment). Now’s our last chance to get and share any input to help get best solution. Thus I welcome your input re: which roof fan for 14-story building (in which vents have curves/bends) will be best:
1. a stronger electric fan that runs maybe 45 minutes out of every hour, or
2. a weaker solar fan that runs continuously.
A hearty thanks to all who already shared their input, as well as to any more that may come.
I would say number 2 because running it continuously would prevent the odor from accumulating. Also, a strong fan might create noise issues for people living on the top floor.
Keep us posted on the result of the meeting as some of us might be facing the same situation in our buildings.
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Noted. Have had similar thoughts (though worry weaker fan won’t have enough power).
Will do re: keep you posted. Thanks!
Update: The building decided to go with the more powerful fan (even though more expensive) due to thinking it needs to be powerful enough to work on the exhaust vents with bends. Also they have some confidence in the installer, I believe.
They expect it to be installed this week – yay! Sure hope it improves things. Smelling someone else’s shit in your own bedroom when trying to go to bed (or when waking up) ain’t my idea of happiness.
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How are the new fans working out?
Regarding the shampoo fumes, those are not only irritating but actually toxic:
Fan install was delayed. At last, just put in; initial schedule omits evenings until we see if top-floor apartment complains of noise (ugh – this was NOT part of the plan!). They also cycle off every hour for I believe 10 or 15 minutes. 
It’s not a cure-all, but may have helped. Did not notice the full range of odors (only the stale rancid kitchen grease odor) on first night; we’ll see what happens going forward…
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Latest update: No change re: odors etc. Again, not sure if it is the fan that helped with odor or coincidence, with perhaps the cooler weather helping odor issues. (The acute odor issues coincided with warm summer weather.) But certainly the fan has not hurt any! Here’s hoping the current low-odor issue remains vs. return to overwhelming odor issues.
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One more update, 2 months later – definitely happy with outcome. Since roof fan installed the odors have been quite minimal – including the mold odors that were quite strong in August. Definitely recommend this for any buildings that don’t already have exhaust fan on roof.
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