Use These Tips to Properly Ventilate Your Bathroom

Sufficient bathroom ventilation is critical for holding off odors and mildew. The Middletown area’s humidity makes it difficult at times, but maintaining good air quality in your bathroom is possible.

Sizing and Placing Your Fan

For a bathroom of up to 100 sq. ft., you’ll need an exhaust fan that provides 1 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air movement per square foot. A fan this size completely changes the room air eight times an hour.  For a larger bathroom, consider the fixtures used. For each shower, tub or toilet, you’ll need 50 CFM of fan power.

Exhaust fans usually ventilate best when installed near the shower or tub. In a larger room, two or more smaller fans can work well. For example, you might install one above the shower and another in the enclosed toilet area.

The bathroom door should be undercut to let in replacement air from other rooms. If the bathroom includes a supply air vent, place the exhaust vent on the other side of the room. This helps pull fresh air across the room.

Make sure your fan is connected to a duct that directs exhaust air outdoors and not between your ceiling joists, where the air will contribute to moisture and mold problems.

Getting the Most from Your Fan

After showering, let your bathroom ventilation run for 15 to 20 minutes. Run it longer than this and you’ll draw in more humid air and air contaminants than you let out. Fans with timers are available to ensure the fan doesn’t run too long. Choose a fan with a motion- and/or humidity sensor and you’ll enjoy automatic ventilation.

In winter, an exhaust fan draws warm air out of your home. To reduce heat loss and save energy, consider installing a fan with a heat exchanger. These capture heat in the outgoing air and transfer it back into the room. A fan with a built-in infrared heat lamp is another option.

If your bathroom ventilation could use some improvement, contact us for help at C.R. Wolfe Heating & Air Conditioning in the Middleton area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Middletown, New York about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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