What Size Should My Bathroom Ventilation Fan Be?

July 28, 2017

Ordinary tasks like showering, bathing and shaving can put home-damaging humidity into the air in your Tomball home. There’s good news however—a modest bathroom ventilation fan can keep you from distorted wood, mold growth, broken drywall and other issues associated with a humid bathroom.

Even if you have ventilation fans in your bathrooms, do you know if they’re the correct size? Are they as noiseless and energy efficient as they could be? Premium Air Services LLC is here to answer your questions.

Today’s bathroom ventilation fans are small and sleek and they work more quietly and economically than ever before. You’ll find a great range of selections, from simple fans that will get the job done to fans with fitted heat lamps, motion sensors and heat-exchanger ventilation that helps block warmed air from leaking through your ventilation. While you have a lot of bells and whistles to choose from, the most critical feature of your fan is whether or not it’s full-sized enough to do its job.

Rated by the cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air they push, a bathroom ventilation fan should be able to exchange the air in a bathroom at least eight times an hour. With a typical 8-foot ceiling, your ventilation fan should have a CFM rating almost as high as the number of square feet in your bathroom. Therefore, if your bathroom is 5 feet by 8 feet, a CFM rating of 40 would be adequate.

If you have a larger ceiling, the equation gets a little more complex. You’ll want to multiply the width of the room by its height and length, divide it by 60 and multiply by 8. Or, to keep it easy, you can use HGTV’s guidance for bathrooms larger than 100 square feet – verify your CFM requirements by adding 50 CFM for every toilet; 50 CFM for each shower, bath and combo; and 100 CFM for each whirlpool.

If you’re not sure if your bathroom ventilation fan is the right size, or you know it’s the occasion for a new one, give the pros at Premium Air Services LLC at call at 713-364-9957. We’re here to help you guarantee you have a ventilation fan that will work hard to guard your home and keep it comfy.