Bathroom Ventilation Q.

[Pet]

While floors still up..... Our "undreground" bathroom has very little ventilation only a small opening window on the outside wall next to the extractor fan.

When the fan is on and the door closed there is no through draught to allow fan to draw out moist air. I have been toying with the idea of running some "squashed" ventilation/extractor vent pipe stuff from the outside wall to the diagonally opposte corner to the extractor fan thus allowing fresh drier air to enter the bathroom and creating a decent air flow.

Or would it be better just to put a vent in the bathroom door to allow interior "warmer" air to flush through to the fan?

TIA Pete

[Jan Wysocki]

Even better would be a heat recovery ventilator which uses a countercurrent heat exchanger to heat the incoming air with the outgoing exhaust. That way you'll spend less energy on heating and you'll reduce draughts. However, these devices are an order of magnitude more expensive than simple extractor fans. They are available as 'through the wall' units for single rooms. Here's an example:

I'm currently thinking of fitting one in my (upstairs) bathroom. IIRC Baxi (now part of Vent Axia) make a similar poduct.

-- Jan

[chris French]

Which is of course the problem.

I considered one of these when I did my bathroom, but it just didn't seem worthwhile (on this scale - whole house ones make more sense) any energy savings will be small, certainly not cost effective, and the volume of air drawn by the extractor isn't really enough to create a significant draught (there are plenty of other routes for draughts....)

I would probably just put in vent if necessary in the bathroom door and draw air through the house - as long as there is ventilation of some sort into the house.

I found no need for this, even with the door closed the vent seems to work ok - there is a gap under the door, and anyway. it's rare that the door is fully closed when not in use .

>

[G&M]

BES do one that is a bit cheaper than the one you mentioned.

The other advantage of these units is that the airflow is controlled and one doesn't have to open the bathroom door, allowing moist air out into the rest of the house, to get the extractor working well.