Bathroom extractor fan and venting.

Hi All,

We've got a "colony upper" flat in Edinburgh with a converted loft; the bathroom is upstairs and has a part coombed ceiling. There is currently a small (4") fan connected to the light circuit; that feeds into flexible ducting (120mm) which travels laterally for around 2m and then vents, via a duct-tape-rich bodged joint, into a 3" plastic pipe which in turn goes up vertically through the roof. The toilet (downstairs) extractor fan also vents through the same pipe.

We're looking to replace this with an inline fan controlled by a humidistat and we're looking for a couple of pieces of advice. I think I may have been a bit enthusiastic in the choice of fan - Manrose 150mm inline axial, shifts 230m3/hr - although the advice on the ideal size of fan varies from 3-20 times room volume (about 12m3) per hour. So that's the first question: how much air do we need to shift (I know building regs talk about 15l/sec intermittent)? Have I completely overcooked it with the fan choice? Will it matter much (we're planning on putting vents in the foot of the door and the inlet will be in the ceiling)?

Second question is about venting the fan. Ideally, we should either vent to the eaves from ceiling inlet or mount the fan directly through the coombe to the roof - neither of these options are possible in our case (well, the latter one is, but is less desirable). Given that, we're planning on removing the current outlet and putting in a new one much closer to the fan itself. Can anyone give us any advice on the best way of achieving this? Specifically, it seems to be difficult to get fittings for vents that go up to 150mm diameter.

Cheers - Adam...

Reply to
Adam-the-Kiwi
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is The Place for all things duct-related - I'm sure they'll have whatever you need

David

Reply to
Lobster

Thanks David - will check them out.

Reply to
Adam-the-Kiwi

Might also want to install a "damper" in your new ducting to prevent backdraughts on a windy night. Search the BES site for "damper" - for round or rectangular channels.

Mungo

Reply to
Mungo

Thanks Mungo - I had already spotted and added to the list. We are thinking about putting a y-joint in and having the toilet extractor venting the same way, so I was planning on putting one in on each set of ducts. Having trouble finding y-connectors, though...

I don't suppose you (or anyone else) has any other thoughts with regard the OP?

Reply to
Adam-the-Kiwi

Yup. I'd guess you may find trouble getting those. I asked about 15mm Y copper fittings but no-one knew if these were available (in a recent different thread).

Regarding the larger-spec fan: my gut feeling is "no". You want to "cream" the moist (and/or smelly) air out of the rooms, not apply some inverted hovercraft. Too much air movement may create a draught; or it may suck all that expensive heated air out your house! I'd guess that the bigger fan would also be noisier too.

So, sticking with the Building Control requirements on fan size would be my (admittedly unscientific) advice.

Mungo

Reply to
Mungo

If noise is an issue , go for the bigger fan and run it at a reduced speed.

Robert

Reply to
robert

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