Feb 10thSmoking Parlor

I’d been thinking about having a smoking room in my house for years.  A search on the internet would have you believe you need a fancy hepa filtration system, strong exhaust fan, or some other complex system that bipasses air ducts and reheats or cools your home.  Intimidated by others’ smoking rooms, I put my idea on the back burner, thinking I’d wait until I could afford to have a high CFM exhaust fan installed.  Then one day I decided to just try smoking in my office, and seeing how bad it was.  As it turns out, it was fairly bad.  I removed all textiles (that would hold the smell of smoke), but even so, the smoke smell lingered and even went beyond the room.  As bad as it was, the smell went away in about a week, and I thought it was a problem I could solve.  My current solution contains smoke to my office pretty well, and the smell only lasts a day or so.  If for some reason I need the smell gone immediately, I have a backup plan for that too.

I started with Fans.  I have two windows in my office, so I got a small air circulator fan for the intake, and a larger vornado for the exhaust.  I didn’t buy fancy fans, or even window fans, just small cheap fans to handle a room of about 10×20.  Since its winter, I bought a small ceramic heater on amazon.  Its very small, very quiet, and often gets the job done on low.  This was very surprising, but its really all I need to be comfortable in a tee shirt when its less than 30 degrees outside.  With both fans and the heater running, its whisper quiet.

I was worried about my door so I bought weatherstripping, and went all the way around the frame.  Then I bought a piece of foam to block the bottom of the door, but honestly I don’t always use it.  Since I don’t have any air ducts in my office, and I’m exhausting most air out than I’m drawing in, I don’t expect much smoke to escape until I turn the fans off.

When I leave the fans running for about an hour after I’m finished, most smell is gone.  If I just shut the windows and leave the room, a small amount of smell remains.  If I’m having company over soon after smoking, I’ll leave the fans going, and run a small air purifier.  This type of air purifier has its drawbacks, but it completely eliminates the smoke odor.  For just over $100, I have a very functional smoke management system.

Despite very cold temperatures this weekend, I was able to enjoy a cigar.  My wife went to brunch with some friends, so I grabbed my kindle, some bourbon, and a nice stick.

I’ll do a full review of the bourbon later.  The Cabaiguan was great as always, though I did experience a slight run problem.  It came out of my travel humidor, so it was probably my fault.  The book I’ reading is excellent, but not well paired to Tennessee bourbon and a cigar from Ecuador and Nicaragua.  I’ll try to enjoy a more authentic Cuban experience, and write it up soon.