What Size Should My Bathroom Ventilation Fan Be?

Everyday tasks like showering, bathing and shaving can put home-destructive humidity into the air in your Asheville home. There’s good news however—a simple bathroom ventilation fan can protect you from warped wood, mold growth, cracked drywall and other trouble associated with a humid bathroom.

Even if you have ventilation fans in your bathrooms, do you know if they’re the proper size? Are they as soft and energy efficient as they could be? 1st Choice Service Group Inc is here to answer your questions.

Today’s bathroom ventilation fans are small and smooth and they work more quietly and effectively than ever before. You’ll find a large range of selections, from classic fans that will get the job done to fans with fitted heat lamps, motion sensors and heat-exchanger ventilation that helps avoid warmed air from leaking through your ventilation. While you can find a lot of bells and whistles to choose from, the most important characteristic of your fan is whether or not it’s large 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 replace the air in a bathroom at least eight times an hour. With a standard 8-foot ceiling, your ventilation fan should have a CFM rating at least as high as the number of square feet in your bathroom. So, 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 complicated. 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 tips 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 unclear if your bathroom ventilation fan is the proper size, or you know it’s time for a new one, give the experts at 1st Choice Service Group Inc at call at 828-551-2913. We’re here to help you make sure you have a ventilation fan that will run hard to guard your home and keep it comfortable. You can even set up an appointment with us online if that’s easiest for you.