Fellow Electrical engineer needs guidance to learn about residential basement ventilation

[MiniMe4Eng]

Hi guys

I am an electrical (Electronics in fact) engineer and I am trying to educate myself in regards to how to ventilate a residential basement
I don't necesarly want to waste your time with this but I would appreciate and advice. Instead I would like to ask you to recommend me some books, web pages or any kind of documentation where I quickly read about how to deal with this

Here is my problem just in case you would have the time and you are in the mood to answer a problem that is not really int the engineering domain:
I am trying to understand what is the proper way to ventilate a basement. I have a finished basement which if not ventilated starts to smell ..like a basement and I don't like it.
If I run the AC fan continuously the problem diminishes but I get a slight smell upstairs (a raised bungallow, above the grade windows for basement)
What are the recommendations for properly ventilating the basement? The basement has an apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom that have their own ventilators. On top of that I have the chimney for the old furnace. I am thinking about using any of these to evacuate the smelly air and I hope that better air will be sucked from upstairs .... will this work?


I hope I posted this in the right section, if not please let me know where should I post it
Any help will be much appreciated

 

[MiniMe4Eng]

looking closer I discovered that there is a pipe that brings water to my humidifier (old an and not in use anymore). Most probably the tube for the pump follows this pipe to the source of water. The worst part is that I also discovered that just above the furnace the drain tube diameter it reduced by coupling the initial tube with a smaller diameter tube which is the one that actually goes through the floor joists, have no idea where. So now it is out of question to use fishtape to see where this tube goes.

How can I determine which way a pipe goes through a wall when the pipe is not visible?

 

[MiniMe4Eng]

To conclude this thread, I disconnected the plastic tube from the wall and I am now temporarly draining the Furnace/AC pump into a bucket.
Since then the smell disappeared completely and the basement is now almost odorless. I was advised somewhere else to run a charcoal filter on my furnace fan and with that it shall go away completely.

Anyway after some research I do realize now that due to basement specifics I will have to properly ventilate this space anyway.
Thanks a lot for all your help

PF

Edit:I will be back after a while to ask your opinion about of a modification that I would like to do on the return path of my furnace (basically add one more return register in one room and open the return in the furnace room so I can ventilate that room properly)

 

[chicopee]

The AC drain line to the condensate drain pump is a standard feature. If you check out the pump reservoir it will be coated with slime which probably contributed to the basement smell. The measure that I take is to add a little bit of bleach to the reservoir and let it sit for a while then I let the pump drain the reservoir. I do this procedure annually. You will also need to clean the hose from the cooling coil to the pump reservoir separately but I would not use bleach on the cooling coil.

 

[Compositepro]

Bleach on the can work fine if it is only about 2% concentration and is not allowed to sit too long. There are not too many alternatives if there is algae or mold growth on the fins. Running the coils after 10-20 minutes will flush them clean due to condensation on the coil.