Draught proofing an extractor fan! Please give ideas!

[littlefrog]

Does anyone have any bright ideas about what we can do about this, or where we might look for solutions?

We have an extractor hood, which vents onto a narrow passageway between 2 houses, down which the wind whistles - and it comes roaring in through the vent and down into the kitchen when the fan isn't on. It's AMAZING how cold it makes that end of the kitchen, and we really have to do something about it.

The lowest-tech solution is to put a cover over the vent outside, and then every time we want to use the fan, go outside and take it off (real faff, we won't put it back anywhere near every time etc. etc.)

What I'd like would be a vent that only opens when the fan is on but stays shut otherwise - does anyone know whether these exist, what they are called, where I might buy one?

Thank you!

[misi]

I tried all manner of things over the years as when my fan is not on, the wind whistles through, know what has done the trick?

a bit of old plastic!! I had one of those strong M+S translucent carrier bags and I cut out a square that was about 3" bigger than the outside grille. I glued the plastic to the top and 2 sides of the grille and left a ''skirt'' of about 2". when the extractor is on, the air flow comes out through the bottom 'hole'. when the wind blows, it blows the plastic onto the grille. I have had no wind problems since!! always on the look out for something to make it look better but be as effective.

I did try the grille plates that have the louvres on them so that when the fan is on, the lourves open but when the fan's not on they close but I found they rattled a lot and didn't stop wind/air coming through completely

[littlefrog]

Misi,
That is absolutely inspired! What a brilliant idea! As I said, the fan vents onto a passage, so it's not a gorgeous place anyway - and frankly, I'd put up with something that looked MUCH worse for getting rid of our wind problem! I will have a go at making something similar tomorrow when DS is asleep.