Woohoo - bathroom fan working (sort of) - and a question...

[Tim Watts]

Got round to installing the ducting for the fan for my islanded bathroom today (floor was up so why not...).

Very pleased with its performance - have an inline Solar & Palau TD 160 fan screwed to the floor joist upstairs, 100mm rigid duct to a 90 degree bend and into the fan vent in the bathroom ceiling - that's one of these:

round rigid duct into the eaves, converting down to 100mm x 50mm (IIRC) flat flexi duct (the only way I could get it over the wall plate) and down into one of these:

(Item 11393)

Looks neat, and the S&P fan is pretty quiet in itself, despite being powerful. So powerful that there is actually quite a blast out of the vent, and a moderate low pitched roar from the vent in the bathroom.

Seems to work - after a hot bath, it's pulled the humidity from >50% down to

[ARWadsworth]

> work if they are mounted upside down (grill in the horizontal plane)? >

No, a grille like that will not work in the horizontal plane. The flaps are closed by gravity (ie hinged at the top) so they would just sit in an open position and any wind will slam them closed keping you awake all night.

I suspect that the fact that the grille you have fitted is horizontal will stop most of the wind entering anyway.

Adam

[ARWadsworth]

>>> work if they are mounted upside down (grill in the horizontal plane)? >>

Suppose you could motorise the grille.

the first hit I could get

Cheers

Adam

[Tim Watts]

>>> work if they are mounted upside down (grill in the horizontal plane)? >>

Thanks Adam. Wasn't sure if they were sprung or gravity.

Yes, probably wont be an issue, hopefully...

[John Rumm]

If it survived that, then chances are it will be ok for some considerable time thereafter.

>> work if they are mounted upside down (grill in the horizontal plane)? Nope - the slats will just dangle down...

(they can be a tad annoying in the vertical plane - in the wind they tend to flap open and shut and make a racket!)

The slatted ones get sucked open by pressure drops outside - i.e. just the wind blowing perpendicular to the vent in enough.

So what's this, a PIR controlled humidistat with run on timer and manual override? ;-)

[Tim Watts]

>>>

Hmm..

Initially, just a PIR along with the fan's run on timer. I have dimmable lights so I cannot drive the fan from those. Later, I'm planning on shoving a little AVR microcontroller in there to add "intelligence":

1) PIR triggers for < couple of minutes => no fan

2) PIR tiggers for longer => run fan with long run on to clear steam/methane(!)

3) (Thought of this last night) - temperature sender on bath HW pipe (but not shower or basin) => hold off the fan until PIR stops wibbling then run for 20 minutes. This allows a long soak in peace...

[ARWadsworth]

Flexi duct is pretty tough stuff.

The only rectangular grille I have ever seen is one that replaces a brick and these are not shuttered. I use them when ducting kitchen fans with flat ducting above kitchen units. It is often easier to install than core drilling for a circular grille.

If you do have wind problems (no pun intended) then a cowl might be a better option. I have a standard axial fan in my bathroom that vents straight through the wall with a fixed louvre grille and only on the worst days does the wind blow back through the fan. If the fan was on the north facing side of the house I might change my mind about the setup. You also have the advantage of living at the bottom of a hill and I live at the top of a hill with Windhill being the closest village.

This really is a suck it and see what happens type of installation. I would be very surprised if you do suffer from a draught problem with your setup.

Cheers

Adam