Ventilation

[ACOperson]

Hi all

I am considering putting an extractor fan in the bathroom to remove steam when showering etc.

The bathroom has no purpose provided ventilation at present, should I put in some, probably at low level if I decide to install the extractor?

Cheers

 

[JohnD]

Probably not necessary unless the bathroom door is tightly sealed. If you have a bit of a gap at the bottom of the bathroom door, this will draw air from the house to replace that extracted. By making the air flow from house to bathroom you will also prevent steam from drifting into the house.

 

[chrishutt]

The object in ventilating the bathroom is to extract the humid air and replace with dry but warm air. Obvious enough, but the implications are not widely understood!
The extract fan should obviously be close to the source of the humid air (shower) at a high level, but the replacement dry, warm air needs to come from more or less the opposite side of the room to ensure that the main body of air in the room is changed.

The replacement air should come from within the house because it will be warm. The bathroom door may already be ill-fitting enough to allow adequate ventilation, but if tight fitting the fan may be acting against a slight vacuum in which case it will not achieve much, so extra ventilation will be required.

 

[ACOperson]

Yes, I was thinking of the extractor at high level near the shower, and the ventilation at low level somewhere. I suppose it could be in the door or something...