Hey peeps, I moved to a new appartment and my kitchen hood is connected to the same pipe (chimney) as hood from appartment below. The issue is smell coming from our hood when neighbour is cooking.

I was thinking about some kind of sensor (air flow or humidity or smell?) that can detect when neighbour is cooking and then HA would turn on our hood at the lowest speed.

I have no clue what kind of sensor would be suitable. I also need to figure out how to start our hood with HA (hacking with relay or buying some kind of smart kitchen hood is acceptable). Our kitchen hood is just regular Faber with 4 position switch for selecting fan speed.

Anyone have idea how to solve that issue? What sensor would be best for that?

Note that I have already installed 1-way valve (not sure whats the correct english word) and 3 different filters, but still sucks

Edit: I got some things going on, cant replay to all comments today and probbly tomorrow. Thank you all for input, Ill come back asap

  • thehatfox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    81·
    4 months ago

    Is it common for apartments to have shared extractor ducts? I’ve never heard of a setup like this before, and it sounds like both a pain in the arse and a potential safety issue.

    Controlling the kitchen fan is probably the easier bit. Depending on the design of the hood, you might be able to control it with a smart outlet or relay. Turn the hood’s switch to always on and control it with the relay. The difficult bit would be sensing when to turn it on.

    Cooking will often produce VOCs, and VOC sensors are easy to obtain, but they are also have other sources that are likely in your own apartment. Maybe try using temperature and humidity sensors int the duct to activate the fan when there is elevated temperature and humidity inside the duct?

    • rambos@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      5·
      4 months ago

      Is it common for apartments to have shared extractor ducts?

      No, but happens in crap countries like Croatia. Its sad, but I have to deal with it.

      Turning on hood with relay like that would make it difficult to use when we are cooking (cant set the speed and need some kind of switch available). I was thinking I should solder relay on lowest speed, but that might cause additional issues.

      Temp and humidity might work, but im not completely sure since its quite small amount of air coming trought. I should probably get some sensor and see output

    • TonyTonyChopperEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago

      my apartment in the US doesn’t even have a vent to the outside. It just blows the exhaust through a filter and back into the room