Everyday tasks like showering, bathing and shaving can put home-destructive humidity into the air in your Beckley and Mount Hope home. There’s good news still—a straightforward bathroom ventilation fan can protect you from warped wood, mold growth, cracked drywall and other issues 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? Appalachian Heating is here to answer your questions.
Today’s bathroom ventilation fans are small and smooth and they operate more quietly and effectively than ever before. You’ll find a great range of selections, from average fans that will get the job done to fans with fitted heat lamps, motion sensors and heat-exchanger ventilation that helps block warmed air from escaping through your ventilation. While you have a lot of bells and whistles to pick from, the most imperative feature of your fan is whether or not it’s big enough to do its job.
Graded by the cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air they transfer, a bathroom ventilation fan should be able to exchange 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. Therefore, 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 difficult. 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 tips for bathrooms larger than 100 square feet – verify your CFM requirements by increasing 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 right size, or you know it’s time for a new one, give the professionals at Appalachian Heating at call at 304-707-0600. We’re here to help you guarantee you have a ventilation fan that will run hard to protect your home and keep it cozy.