Everyday tasks like showering, bathing and shaving can put home-damaging humidity into the air in your Williamsport home. There’s good news however—a simple bathroom ventilation fan can protect you from distorted wood, mold growth, cracked drywall and other problems associated 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 noiseless and energy efficient as they could be? Lycoming Heating Company is here to answer your questions.
Today’s bathroom ventilation fans are small and modern and they operate more quietly and economically than ever before. You’ll find a large 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 block warmed air from leaking through your ventilation. While there are a lot of bells and whistles to pick from, the most imperative characteristic of your fan is whether or not it’s big enough to do its job.
Assessed by the cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air they push, a bathroom ventilation fan should be able to replace the air in a bathroom at least eight times an hour. With a standard 8-foot ceiling, your ventilation fan should have a CFM rating almost as high as the number of square feet in your bathroom. So, if your bathroom is 5 feet by 8 feet, a CFM rating of 40 would be satisfactory.
If you have a larger 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 – 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 correct size, or you know it’s come to the point for a new one, give the experts at Lycoming Heating Company at call at 570-326-4450. We’re here to help you guarantee you have a ventilation fan that will drive hard to protect your home and keep it comfy.