Getting Excited About Bathroom Exhaust Fans

Do you and the other members of your household use your bathroom exhaust fans?  Or are they experiencing something similar to the Federal government shutdown?

When it comes to bath fans, the best policy is to use them early and often.  They are there to remove moisture from your home and also to improve the indoor air quality.  Together, these two purposes add up to your very own Affordable Care Act. 

We all know that houses need ventilation.  This means fresh air in and stale air out.  We pay an energy penalty, but ventilation is essential to a healthy and safe home.

One way to get stale air out is to let it leak through all the gaps, cracks and holes in the structure of your home.  This random method can usually let enough air out but it makes much more sense to take the air out of the places where it matters most:  the kitchen and bathrooms.

The kitchen and bathrooms are where we produce the most moisture and pollutants.  By operating fans to take air out of these rooms, we can improve the indoor air quality of our homes.

Another consideration is to make sure your home has enough ventilation.  Some homes are not leaky at all, they are “too tight”.  In a case like this, you can use bath fans that operate continuously to ensure your home always pulls in enough fresh air and exhausts enough stale air.  This is referred to as continuous mechanical ventilation.

Residential codes of various types are being modified to include requirements for continuous mechanical ventilation.  Bath fan manufacturers are coming up with exciting new products to meet these requirements.

Newer bath fans never shut off; they operate at low speeds round the clock.  Many are operated by motion sensors that turn the light off and on and run the fan to full speed for a set amount of time, say 15 or 20 minutes.  After that time, the fan slows down to its continuous speed.

The new generation of fans is also very quiet and energy efficient.  Often, when running on the continuous low speed, they cannot be heard at all.  Even at high speeds they are much quieter and use much less electricity to operate than older fans.  They are proving to be a big hit with homeowners, most of whom quickly come to love them.

There is a lot to like about these new bathroom fans and there is no need to wait to buy a new home to have one.  These fans are a great home improvement.  Remember, the fan should be vented outside the home, not into the attic, and not into the soffits.

Contact us today to learn more about indoor air quality and proper ventilation. Our home energy audit can accurately identify your home's air leaks and we can provide the best solutions.