Average tasks like showering, bathing and shaving can put home-harming humidity into the air in your Cambridge home. There’s good news however—a simple bathroom ventilation fan can protect you from deformed wood, mold growth, cracked drywall and other problems associated with a humid bathroom.
Even if you have ventilation fans in your bathrooms, do you know if they’re the right size? Are they as quiet and energy efficient as they could be? Pliescott HVAC Services LLC is here to answer your questions.
Today’s bathroom ventilation fans are small and smooth and they work more quietly and efficiently than ever before. You’ll find a large range of choices, from average fans that will get the job done to fans with built-in heat lamps, motion sensors and heat-exchanger ventilation that helps block warmed air from leaking through your ventilation. While you can find a lot of bells and whistles to pick from, the most imperative aspect of your fan is whether or not it’s full-sized enough to do its job.
Rated by the cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air they move, a bathroom ventilation fan should be able to replace the air in a bathroom at least eight times an hour. With a normal 8-foot ceiling, your ventilation fan should have a CFM rating almost as high as the number of square feet in your bathroom. So, if your bathroom is 5 feet by 8 feet, a CFM rating of 40 would be sufficient.
If you have a larger ceiling, the equation gets a little more complicated. You’ll want to multiply the width of the room by its height and length, divide it by 60 and multiply by 8. Or, to keep it easy, you can heed HGTV’s tips for bathrooms larger than 100 square feet – establish your CFM requirements by adding 50 CFM for every toilet; 50 CFM for each shower, bath and combo; and 100 CFM for each whirlpool.
If you’re not sure if your bathroom ventilation fan is the right size, or you know it’s the occasion for a new one, give the pros at Pliescott HVAC Services LLC at call at 410-228-4822. We’re here to help you guarantee you have a ventilation fan that will work hard to protect your home and keep it cozy.