Humidistat fans for kitchen & bathroom

[Merlin5]

Hi all, new here.

I could do with some advice if possible. I'm not a DIY'er, but I currently have a builder who is refurbishing my ground floor flat in London. It's an old edwardian house converted into two flats, ground floor and upstairs flats. I have the mortgage on the ground floor flat and bought it in 1987.

Just a bit of background then : I had a DPC installed in 1987. But due to lack of maintenance on my part, there's been penetration damp in my flat for a long time, due to penetration from wood that got damp in my bathroom, (pretty much started from broken bath sealant which I never fixed allowing water from the shower to get everywhere), plus water sitting against the rear wall outside which got absorbed into the bricks and damaged the plaster in the kitchen), plus rotten old sash windows, plus crumbling stone sills. I've now had new stone sills installed, new sand and cement wall cladding along the bottom of the walls, a gulley dug along the concrete patio with a black looking drainage/gutter thing inserted and metal vented cover over it for water to drain into without touching the walls, and new upvc double glazed windows installed. New partition wall has been built between kitchen and bathroom (where the old one has been smashed out due to being completely rotten), will be aquapanelled, new suite, tiling. Kitchen has had new plasterboard ceiling, old wall plaster is mostly off and will be replastered, new kitchen suite, new floor tiles, wall tiles, appliances etc. Gas central heating being installed monday.


Right so, in my quest to make sure I'm as damp and condensation free as possible, I need extractor fans, one in kitchen, one in bathroom. I've noticed water droplets often sitting on the new windows which presumably a fan would dissipate. This is a cold flat and the central heating should help as well when installed. My builder reckons 4" for bathroom, and 6" for kitchen. Kitchen is about 17ft long by about 9 wide, bathroom is tiny about 5.5ft by 5. So my question is, which fans? I want them to look nice, so the only ones I like are the discrete tile faced ones. I believe I need humidstat fans. I don't want to spend £100 for each since I'm already over £2000 over my budget. Will these do, with the 5" fan for the kitchen? If so, the 4" fan comes in white or chrome. Chrome is preferable but would it rust or rather flake off? Thanks for any help!

Manrose RT DECO100H 4" Fan, Deco Designer Range with Humidistat , white or chrome, tiled


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Manrose-R...r&var=420057677195&hash=item1c228d9693&_uhb=1



CATA POWERFUL 5"/120mm EXTRACTOR FAN WITH TIMER + HUMIDISTAT+AUTOMATIC SHUTTERS £39.99


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CATA-POWE...earing_Cooling_Air&hash=item1e73a505a8&_uhb=1

 

[Chri5]

The 5" runs 190m3 per hour. Your kitchen is 3 x 6 x 3 (guess at height, but Edwardian grd flrs tend to be high).

So the fan will change the air up to 190 / 54 which is approx 4 times an hour. Now that might be fine generally but I fear it isn't good enough when boiling veg and cooking.

Do you intend to have a proper cooker extractor with outside extraction?

Once the central heating dries out the existing moisture provided you don't hang wet clothes on indoor lines you should be pretty sorted with the moisture issues. It's you have single glazed windows it will be near impossible to stop some condensation caused by warm house air hitting cold internal glass with nearly the same temp as outside.

 

[ericmark]

My father-in-law lives in a house exaclty the same as mine next door but one. However he uses gas to cook with and I use electric with a induction hob with features like auto boil then simmer.

It is very event his kitchen is far wetter than mine. Most I would think because burning gas even without cooking anything produces water. Also my tumble drier pumps air outside again forcing air changes.

Myson in other end of house also circulates the air so my house has a problem with static. It is far too dry.

So working out things like air changes means very little as there are so many variables.

Having the option to turn on a cooker hood (assuming it exhausts outside) will likely assist in keeping house dry clearly better if kept dry than allowed to get wet then dry out so cooker hood better than just an extractor as it's taking the damp straight out.

However it's down to air flow and if you pump air outside it has to return from some where. Drawing air through a wooden floor is very different from drawing air through damp brickwork and so careful consideration as to where the air is coming in can reduce problems. Specially ensuring that it can't suck in flue gases.

There are heat exchangers which heat the air coming in from the air going out and this will clearly stop the feeling of being in a draft. The major advantage of central heating was not heating the whole house but in not sending the exhaust up a chimney together with extra air so they vastly reduced drafts. Clearly to then also stick in extractor fans removes this advantage.

 

[Merlin5]

Thanks for the advice guys. But now I'm lost. So do I get an extractor fan, and if so, which one can you recommend and which might be around £30 to £50? My kitchen has a concrete floor and the old ceramic tiles are coming up and 600 x 600 porcelains are going down. The kitchen is 17 foot long x 9.6 foot wide by just over 8 foot high. Yes, I'll be having a baumatic 60cm wide cooker hood installed, no idea how it's extracted. Also, I'll be having a baumatic ceramic hob and bosch oven, all electric as I don't want gas cooking anymore.

What about the small bathroom, will the 4" Manrose work well?