Well, being a reasonably patriotic fellow, when asked to make a trip to visit several Royal Canadian Legions in the Niagara area, I could not refuse. Besides, they have some pretty good food at those places. A situation, that Legions were taking for granted could not be altered, was the contamination of their indoor air by good old MISTER CIGARETTE SMOKE.

You see, the unique situation that made Legions different, was……everybody in a Legion Hall smoked. (Or at least used to, when all this occurred). The air in a Legion Hall on “Dart”, Friday or Saturday night was non-existent. It wasn’t air – it was the absence of air.

Air replaced by a smog of burnt tobacco carbon, formaldehyde, cyanide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, benzene, water vapour and this conglomerated stew of 300+ other assorted chemicals depending on whose brand you smoked. Sweet!

I was in a Legion Hall (near London actually) that, on “Dart Night”, the complaint from the players was that they couldn’t see the dart boards for the “haze” in the room. EXCUSE ME ? The players stood less than 15ft away from the boards in a confined room. The worst bar I’d ever been in, or should I say was told about, wasn’t that bad. But when I witnessed it for myself … I believed.

The ASHRAE guideline for a “Cigar Bar” or “Smoking Lounge” was 60 cfm/person (smoking & non). I looked at the situation at hand & calculated airflow, equipment & ductwork @ double the ASHRAE standard.

Now I’m not going to tell a Veteran, who put everything on the line so I could do what I’m doing, that he can’t come down to the Legion & have a beer & a smoke on “dart night”. So in every situation that I was involved in, from Niagara to Windsor, and up to Owen Sound & down south into Ohio, (even the Wilmot Rod & Gun Club) We arranged for a mechanical contractor to quote a 1200cfm HRV to control the “smoke” problem. This gave the enclosures 1200cfm of controlled exhaust and 1200cfm of controlled fresh air. (the catch phrase here is controlled).

The exhaust inlet was placed at one extreme side of the dart board area and the inlets of fresh air were placed at the other extreme end. This set up a low velocity movement of CLEAN air across the face of the dart boards and kept them clean and visible.

Our excursion into Ohio caught the attention of other American Legion members and before long, we were supplying “tech support” to installing contractors of HRV systems (our own as well as our competitors). The full scope of what we were doing wasn’t grasped until we found ourselves in the southern U.S. (Georgia to be exact) specifying “wheel” ERV’s to the American Legions for smoke control in their halls as well.

The secret to success in these applications is to remember that a balanced ventilator actually delivers equal amounts of “Intake” & “Exhaust” ventilation, and that the A.S.H.R.A.E. Guide to “Acceptable Indoor Air Quality” is based on intake ventilation or exhaust ventilation only, for each specific application, but not a combination of both at the same time, and that is the “secret” to ventilation success.