Everyday tasks like showering, bathing and shaving can put home-destructive humidity into the air in your Bloomfield home. There’s good news though—a simple bathroom ventilation fan can save you from deformed wood, mold growth, cracked drywall and other issues associated with a humid bathroom.
Even if you have ventilation fans in your bathrooms, do you know if they’re the proper size? Are they as soft and energy efficient as they could be? Stanford Heating & Cooling is here to answer your questions.
Today’s bathroom ventilation fans are small and modern and they operate more quietly and efficiently than ever before. You’ll find a large range of selections, 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 getting out 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 full-sized enough to do its job.
Graded by the cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air they move, a bathroom ventilation fan should be able to swap out 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 sufficient.
If you have a taller 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 simple, you can use HGTV’s tips for bathrooms larger than 100 square feet – verify 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 time for a new one, give the pros at Stanford Heating & Cooling at call at 812-825-8695. We’re here to help you guarantee you have a ventilation fan that will run hard to guard your home and keep it comfy.