Peak vs background ventilation rates for bathrooms

On July 14, 2010, in solutions, by radek
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Recommendations for bathroom ventilation sizing can vary considerably between manufacturers and competing standards.  Some of the newer recommendations allow for low ventilation rates over long periods of time as opposed to the typical 8 air changes per hour. 

We prefer 8 air changes per hour as A MINUMUM and here is why:
When moisture is introduced into the bathroom it has an annoying tendency to get diluted into the entire air content of the space.  With low CFM (background) ventilation that moisture will eventually be exhausted, but in the meantime it will linger in the air and potentially condense on colder objects such as walls and fixtures.  Once it’s in liquid form on your walls it takes A LONG TIME to evaporate it again, not to mention the potential long term damage to the bathroom.

So what do WE recommend?
– minimum of 8 air changes per hour (more is better since the extra CFM typically comes at very little cost; nothing wrong with 10 or 12 air changes per hour)
– 100 CFM minimum per bathroom, no matter how small it is
– multiple grilles in larger bathrooms to pickup the moisture/smells close to the source
– keep the system quiet (inline fans!!) so that you will use it
– install a timer and leave the fan running for at least 20 minutes after leaving the bathroom

And remember, the standards are there for the builders and not necessarily for you.  Keep the moisture off your walls with adequate CFM and you will avoid mold issues.

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Smoke And Grease Be Gone…

On July 14, 2010, in solutions, by jake
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The Kitchen…a place of interest for those of us who like to eat.

Most of us are familiar with the noisy, rattling, ineffective range vents usually installed in a home. These units typically have some form of fan and motor right above the range, causing all sorts of racket, and struggle to pull all the smoke from the fish that my wife I burned last night.

Is there a better way? You bet. Fantech Component Kitchen Exhaust systems. These have the a powerful fan located in the attic, coupled with a Silencer (muffler for the automotively inclined) that is able to pull massive amounts of air and do it without driving you from the kitchen with noise.

The ideal setup would have some sort of Hood Liner, a Backdraft Damper to prevent air from coming down the pipe when the Fan is off, the Silencer, The Fan and some sort of discharge hood in that order. All that is left is some hard wall galvanized pipe and you have a vent system that is unparalleled in terms of performance and quiet operation.

Sizing the system can be done by using our handy System Builder or a few simple rules of thumb:

  • The hood should be wider than the range.
  • Multiply the size of the hood to get surface area (36×22=792sq in)
  • Divide that by 144 to get square footage (792 sq in=5.5 sq ft)
  • Use around 75-100 CFM per square foot minimum to get the size fan you need

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