Bathroom Fans Guide

More than twenty years of experience as an electrical contractor in the bathroom remodeling business gives me the confidence to talk on the subject of bathroom fans w/heaters, something that I was regularly involved with.

The most important factor that you need to decide while selecting a bathroom fan w/heater is its capacity, measured in terms of Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM). It denotes the volume of air that the exhaust can throw out of the bathroom in a given time. So, the greater this value, the more effective is the exhaust created by a bathroom fan w/heater.

My recommendations?

I would suggest going in for the maximum CFM, keeping away the ones with a CFM lower than 50. Such fans are designed to meet the needs of many cities that have remodeled bathrooms needing to include an exhaust fan. They have more of decorative purpose that functional, as they aren’t able to move much air to be effective.

Remember that the bathroom fans w/ heater should throw air outside the house. That may be thru the roof, in case it’s right above the bathroom under renovation otherwise thru the wall of the bathroom. If the vent is insufficient, the performance of bathroom fans w/ heater is severely affected.

Next comes the size of the heater of bathroom fans w/ heater. You need to ensure that the heater is designed to work at 120 volts. If the bathroom fan w/ heater works on 240 volts, you’ll have to call in an electrician to install additional wiring and make it operational.

You also get a combined light and fan unit that is easier than a combination of bathroom fan w/heater. Having a light and fan unit with a separate wall mounted heater will prove to be better than a bathroom fan w/heater.

There are many suppliers of bathroom fans w/heater. It will a nice idea to contact your local supplier of electrical goods for further help in getting a good bathroom fan w/ heater that answers all your requirements.

An exhaust fan forms a very important utility item for your home. While improving air circulation, it helps prevent building of moisture and other indoor pollutants and removes undesirable odors. So you can see, it’s necessarily needed in the bathroom and the kitchen.

A bathroom exhaust fan is essentially needed for improved ventilation. Apart from doing away with offensive odors, it also throws out large amounts of humid air to the exterior of your home. A bathroom exhaust fan comes with additional accessories like lights, nightlights, timers, and heaters.

Look for an appropriate sized exhaust for your bathroom. If you carry the size of the bathroom while shopping for an exhaust fan, the salesperson would suggest you the most suitable fan with the needed capacity. Buying a powerful unit is a wise investment.

For its efficient working, an exhaust fan should be fixed properly. It takes a couple of hours to install bathroom fans. Before getting started, you must unplug the power from the circuit. Lock the circuit so that no one can start it even accidentally, while you are at it. Remove insulation if any, from the part of the ceiling where you like to fix the unit. In case you are replacing the light fixture with a fan unit, unfasten the lighting fixture and cut off all electrical connections.

The best location for fixing the ventilation housing is on the ceiling beam. But the existing lighting fixture may not permit that. In such a situation you can use wooden braces between the beams or joists to have a firm connection for the housing. While holding the housing firmly mark around its periphery to get the needed size for the cut. Then, you cut along the line and firmly fix the housing in its place.

Pull out a cable from the existing light knob, right up to the unit. You should use a three –wire cable in case you want to split the light switch and the switch for the exhaust fan. Make sure to follow the diagram as in the manual, else it could lead to power shortage in the house.

Join the ground wire to the clip provided on the housing. Push the wires inside the wiring box and replace the cover. From the fan housing, join the duct. Then, put in the cover of the unit inside the bathroom. Finally, wire the cable to the existing electrical circuit at the wall switch.

It’s quite easy to install exhaust fans, as the guidelines provided with the accompanying manual are sufficient for doing the needful. But safety is of utmost importance and one should not hesitate to seek professional help in case of any doubts.