Everyday tasks like showering, bathing and shaving can put home-harming humidity into the air in your Lexington home. There’s good news however—a straightforward bathroom ventilation fan can keep you from deformed wood, mold growth, damaged drywall and other trouble related with a humid bathroom.
Even if you have ventilation fans in your bathrooms, do you know if they’re the correct size? Are they as quiet and energy efficient as they could be? James Heating & A/C, Inc is here to answer your questions.
Today’s bathroom ventilation fans are small and sleek and they run more quietly and effectively than ever before. You’ll find a great range of choices, from simple fans that will get the job done to fans with fitted heat lamps, motion sensors and heat-exchanger ventilation that helps avoid warmed air from escaping through your ventilation. While you have a lot of bells and whistles to choose from, the most critical feature of your fan is whether or not it’s large enough to do its job.
Rated by the cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air they transfer, a bathroom ventilation fan should be able to replace the air in a bathroom at least eight times an hour. With a typical 8-foot ceiling, your ventilation fan should have a CFM rating at least as high as the number of square feet in your bathroom. Thus, if your bathroom is 5 feet by 8 feet, a CFM rating of 40 would be adequate.
If you have a larger ceiling, the equation gets a little more complex. 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 use HGTV’s guidance 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 unclear if your bathroom ventilation fan is the proper size, or you know it’s come to the point for a new one, give the pros at James Heating & A/C, Inc at call at 336-853-6070. We’re here to help you guarantee you have a ventilation fan that will run hard to guard your home and keep it comfy.