Do you have exhaust ventilation in your bathrooms? You should.
Bathroom ventilation delivers benefits on many fronts, such as these:
Improved air quality by reducing chemical airborne particulates
Reduced moisture that might otherwise lead to mold and damage to bathroom drywall
Reduced humidity that makes the room and home feel warmer in summer, leading to more energy use to cool
Reduced odors
Why Some Bathrooms Aren’t Properly Ventilated
The benefits really speak for themselves. However, many homes do not have bathroom ventilation for several reasons. Perhaps the contractor left it out to save money. Maybe the fans stopped working long ago and were never replaced. Or, even if there is bathroom ventilation, it’s inadequate to do the job it needs to be doing. Sometimes the fans are working fine, and people just don’t bother to use them because they are loud — usually because they’ve been improperly installed — and because they’re really not sure of the purpose anyway.
Some bathrooms may have ventilation, but it isn’t exhausted to the outdoors. You’re not doing yourself any favors by turning on the bathroom fans if the moisture is just being exhausted into the attic or up around the ceiling joists. Moisture can collect in these areas over time and cause damage through mold or wood rot.
Tips on Buying/Installing Bathroom Exhaust Fans
- Don’t select your fan based on price alone. A cheaper fan may be noisy and may not do the job properly.
- Get the right size fan. Measure volume (length by width by height), then divide by 5 for the proper cfm (cubic feet per minute) which is the volume of air the fan in your bathroom should be able to remove.
- Check the sone rating. This is the measurement for the noise level your fan will generate. A sone rating of 4 is loud; a rating of 1 is much quieter, but the fan will cost more.
- Spend the money to have your fan properly installed by a technician or it may not work properly.
For more on bathroom ventilation, contact Ace Hardware Home Services. We serve Dayton and the surrounding area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
