Best Bathroom Fans and Considerations
Bathrooms (and kitchen and utility and wc) fans are essential for your home.
Ventilation helps dilute pollutants and remove moisture that causes condensation, mould and poor indoor air quality.
In new build homes, the Building Regulations have changed and often a whole house mechanical ventilation system will be installed which is centrally mounted and ducted to the rooms, providing continuous ventilation at a low rate and then boosting when required.
Why?
Because modern new build are built to high insulation levels to keep the heat in. But the house and its occupants need to breathe! A whole house continuously running system ensures removal of stale air and replacement with new,
Existing homes aren’t that much different now. We’ve taken up the grants available for every insulation known to man kind and added double glazing and everything in between.
Therefore, we need good effective ventilation to keep condensation and mould eliminated and provide a fresh indoor environment.
So.
The Air Shop recommends low energy continuously running fans for bathrooms (and kitchens and utility rooms and wc’s)
Don’t worry – continuously running fans are quiet, very low energy and importantly very effective at keeping your indoor air quality in tip top shape!
Here are our key tips and considerations for choosing your next bathroom fan:
• Continuous running
Provides up to 300% more ventilation to your property – keeps the air moving, keep condensation away and removes pollutants that cause allergies and irritations.
• Axial, Mixed Flow or Centrifugal
The length of the ducting or path to the outside where air terminates impacts how well the fan will perform once it’s installed. An Axial flow fan can usually handle up to 2metres of ducting, but anymore and it’ll be making a noise and not doing much else. Centrifugal or Mixed flow fans have better pressure handing can easily manage longer duct runs when the fan is installed in the ceiling.
• Automatic Sensing
You want ventilation to work for you and your environment. Consider a fan that uses the indoor environment to adapt its performance. Humidity sensing is common. This is usually a set point which activates the fan when it is reached. There are also SMART humidity sensors which are looking for rapid spikes e.g., a shower and do not activate on a particularly humid summer evening (which can be a nuisance)
• Energy Performance
Just because it’s on all of the time it doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Look at the wattage performance of the fan. Typical modern fans use just 1-2 watts meaning it will cost you about £2.00 for the entire year to ventilate your home as it works between a trickle (very very low) speed and boosts when required
• Noise Performance
Check out the dB (decibels) – you don’t want to be disturbed, but you do need ventilation – find the balance!
- Safety Rating
Extractor fans are rated for safety as they are installed in a wet room. Look at the IPX rating for where the fan can be installed e.g. above or in the shower will be different from the wall.
We recommend 3 high quality bathrooms fans – check them out