We spend a good bit of our lives in the bathroom, and one of the best ways to make that experience more pleasant is to install bathroom ventilation. Properly installed exhaust ventilation offers so many benefits, in fact, that we’re surprised anyone goes without it.
Benefits of Bathroom Ventilation
Maybe your bathroom has never had ventilation. Or perhaps it no longer works, or the ventilation system is just inadequate for the job it should be doing. Maybe you even hate turning it on because it’s too noisy. Fortunately, bathroom ventilation is not a terribly expensive improvement, so if you need a little extra nudging, here are some additional reasons why it’s a great idea:
- Can lower moisture levels that might lead to mold and damage to wood and drywall.
- Can lower relative humidity in the home, so that occupants feel more comfortable without needing to lower thermostat set points (thereby saving energy).
- Can remove odors from the bathroom.
- Can remove airborne particulates such as volatile organic compounds originating from cleaning chemicals.
Installing Bathroom Ventilation
All bathroom exhaust fans are not the same, so be careful that you know which type to buy for your bathroom. Here are a few details to keep in mind.
Your bathroom fan should be sized right. Measure height by width by length of room, then divide by 5. The figure you get will be the volume (in cubic feet per minute, or cfm) of air you need to remove to be effective.
Is a quiet exhaust fan important to you? Pay attention to the sone ratings: a sone of 1 is quiet; the higher the figure, the noisier the fan. You will likely have to pay more for the quieter fans.
Have a professional install the fan. It should be exhausted to the outdoors, rather than into the roof or into the ceiling joists, where it can cause mold and wood rot.
Have the fan cleaned at least once a year for optimum operation.
To learn more about bathroom ventilation, contact Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric Company. We have served Yuma since 2001.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 928-723-3183.
