Smoke door question?

[JLNorthGA]

We have smoke doors in the loft area above the fire curtain.

One of the board member's husbands brought a infrared and thermal imaging camera (a Fluke) by this past weekend checking for ways to improve our heating bill. One of the really cold areas was the smoke doors above the stage.

They are quite cold. They are steel and exposed to the elements. They conduct heat quite nicely. There are some holes that are visible in the doors for things like fusible links and such.

Any feasible way to do something about their heat/cold conductance? Would gluing a piece of insulation board or something to the inside of the doors be of any help? Would it even be legal?

The winter power bills are quite high as opposed to any other time of year - electric heat isn't conservative of energy consumption - especially when it's down below freezing.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

There are insulated models. Assuming this is a newer building and these are manufactured units, the technical problem with doing anything to these is that they are listed - as in UL listed - and applying insulation or modifying them in anyway other than as they were tested for listing voids the listing. Just like a basic fire door, you can't alter it. If it has a kick plate or window in the door, it was tested with it in the test oven.

Sorry, replace the vents or live with the heat loss, or try to get an authority to agree to the variance. I would never want to assume the liability of voiding the listing because if there ever was a fire and they didn't open - bam - you're guilty.

 

[JLNorthGA]

Early 1980's isn't a newer building. These were manufactured for the building, I'm sure. If we win the lottery, I guess we'll replace them. I'll try to find other ways to help with the heating bill.

 

[derekleffew]

I need to ponder on this some more, but my initial thought is that any heat up in the stagehouse / flies is wasted anyway. How high is the grid/roof? What about some "ceiling fans" to force the heat back down to the stage level? Funny how it seems on many stages there's a 30°F difference between onstage and in the dark, dank, and drafty wings.
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[JLNorthGA]

I need to ponder on this some more, but my initial thought is that any heat up in the stagehouse / flies is wasted anyway. How high is the grid/roof? What about some "ceiling fans" to force the heat back down to the stage level? Funny how it seems on many stages there's a 30°F difference between onstage and in the dark, dank, and drafty wings.
.

It isn't the heat - but the cold. Any heat up in that area is neutralized by the smoke doors and brought back down by the cold air sinking.

The ribs of the tilt slabs which make up the roof are roughly 37' above the stage floor. The only power up there is in the conduit and boxes which lead to the stage electrics.

Drafts are indeed a problem - from the roll-up door in the scene shop area adjacent to the stage. We're going to have Overhead Door Company look at that to replace or modify that.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Stepping outside my normal area of expertise, most thermal loss in a building is from convection, with radiation second and conduction third. You might look at replacing the gaskets. Be sure to test the vents after working on them. The problem is still will they perform as designed with a heavy snow load, wind, and thermal stress from a fire. This is a building feature designed to protect occupants from a fire and actual theatre fires show them to be effective (unlike fire safety curtains).

Can you reach them easily or is this a purely underhung situation? Do they have a label of any sort?

 

[JLNorthGA]

Can you reach them easily or is this a purely underhung situation? Do they have a label of any sort?

I haven't really looked for a label. I can reach them by going on the roof through the access hatch on the main part of the roof (I will wait until it is a bit warmer, though!!). The fly loft is about another 7-8' above the rest of the roof. The doors are in the front side of that portion of the building. I haven't really looked for gaskets either. If I have to access them from the inside, that isn't going to happen soon. I'd have to take down the main drape and rent a scissors lift to get me up the requisite 30+ feet.

For a budget theatre, our house really isn't too bad. It is reasonably well designed - but it was designed for use mostly from March until October. The heat pumps don't function too well when it is really cold and the HVAC system design is rather poor. They should have had registers or vents near the floor rather than up in the suspended ceiling for the auditorium

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I haven't really looked for a label. I can reach them by going on the roof through the access hatch on the main part of the roof (I will wait until it is a bit warmer, though!!). The fly loft is about another 7-8' above the rest of the roof. The doors are in the front side of that portion of the building.

So these are in the wall, not roof? If so, definitely not listed. I'm pretty sure there have never been listed moke vents for installation in vertical surfaces.

Any modifications of a grandfathered feature like this would be up to the AHJ to approve, IMHO.