Bathroom Fans

[Robert]

How many cubic feet is the bathroom? L X W X H = CF

Keep in mind the manufacturers sone ratings are typically at very low static pressures (.1 and below). You add a piece of duct (increasing external static pressure) to the fan and the sones are an entirely different story. If your wife likes the noise, I would recommend 1.5 + at least. Broan Silent series is a nice fan. It's not as quiet as the Panasonic and still a nice fan.

In order to size the fan properly, you need the cubic footage of the space to determine the air changes per hour. The fan in my enclosed water closet is sized at 24 air changes per hour. It only takes 2.5 minutes to remove all my stink in the morning =)

Rob

[David Gale]

About 520. I'd just mentioned the square footage since the fans I was looking at all said that they were rated for, say, a 50 square foot bath, or a 100 square...

-David

[Joe Fabeitz]

Option #1 Send me your wife and I will make her happy. She can stay in my bathroom and listen to my noisy fan all day long. Can she cook?

Option #2 Buy the best Panasonic bathroom fan you can afford. Forget the light. Send it to me and I will send you my noisy fan. It's been tested extensively for both noise AND exhaust functionality. Both you and your new wife will be delighted and she can remain with you.

Option #3 Combine options 1 and 2. Have your wife BRING a new Panasonic fan and I'll figure out some other way to make fan-like sounds.

Just trying to be helpful.

[Bob in CT]

You can also insulate the ducting, which is what I did.

[Bob in CT]

The panasonic website tells you how to determine what to buy, and includes calculations for ducting. I didn't use these, as my bathrooms are tiny.

[FireBrick]

I'm not sure I understand your reply.

[FireBrick]

Fresh air vents are the coming thing. But most older homes may not have this feature. Many of the higher efficiency pvc pipe type furnace now also install a intake pipe that feed fresh air into the combustion process.

[Michael Strickland]

Is it a timer that you have to turn to a time value or simply push a button (or flip a switch) and the fan runs for a set amount of time?

Later, Mike (substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)

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Please send all email as text only - HTML mail is automatically filtered to the trash and I might not catch it.

[steve]

I have read the posts, and I still agree that you should go Panasonic...but...

If you are dead set on a noisy fan, Broan makes a nice ventilator that is

214CFM, at 1.8 Sones...runs about $175. Or, the 90CFM version that is 1.5..

Either way, wire it so you can cut the noisy thing off...it will start to drone after a while..but then, I have the Panasonics, and thats all we install in new construction now...

[Oscar_Lives]

So what the hell is wrong with your wife that she wants a noisy bathroom fan? I cannot imagine any reason that someone would want a NOISY appliance in their house. What is up with this?

[Robert]

The noise covers up the fart and plop. Don't you fart and plop? =D

Rob

[Phisherman]

One reason is that she can FART really loud without anyone noticing.

[David Gale]

Thanks to all who responded with helpful replies. In the end, I decided to go with Panasonics; the main bathroom'll get the 110 CFM fan/light, which is rated at 1.2 sones; that ought to provide enough background noise for my wife (for those who had rather crass reasons she'd want the noise: she grew up in a city, with fairly constant background; we're now living in Vermont, which is pretty quiet. That's a little disconcerting to her. And, of course, she likes to be able to tell that the fan's working--if it were too quiet, the only indication of a problem would be taking a long, hot shower and having a foggy mirror), while is still on the quiet end of things (which I'll like). The small bathroom gets a much smaller fan--0.3 sones. And it's still far more powerful than it needs to be. Ought to be nice.

Thanks again!

-David

[JerryMouse]

1. Tell your wife the fan noise might mask the sound of a mainiac with a knife. Rent "Psycho" from Blockbuster.
2. Tell your wife that since you plan to shower together forever, a compromise is in order.

[Oscar_Lives]

I don't think women are able to fart.

[Gel]

Yes I recall UK Government issued a warning some years back about CO dangers if using ceiling fan in same room as gas appliance.