OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Good exhaust fans in your bathrooms and kitchen are crucial for a healthy home
Ventilation is one of the most important things you should be monitoring in your home. As we go about life at home, cooking, cleaning, bathing, and yes, even breathing — we're creating moisture. It's our home's job to take that moisture and properly expel it from our home.
If it doesn't, and the moisture levels build up? You could be looking at issues with mould and rot of your building materials. When the cold weather hits, we're more likely to turn up the heat and keep the windows shut tight, so you're losing some natural ventilation.
In rooms where more moisture is created than normal, like your kitchen and bathrooms, you need a way to properly ventilate that moist air you're creating. That's why these rooms often have ventilation fans.
In new homes especially, where things are built right, and built to be sealed tightly, it's so important that your home has a way to remove that moist air you're creating.
In your kitchen, the exhaust fan needs to be placed over the cooking area, extending over the stove's surface area. Often, in those designer hoods, the exhaust is placed too high up to have much effectiveness. Of course, too low and it makes cooking a nightmare. Distance will vary whether it's a gas or electric range and size of the stove.
You may see recirculating kitchen fans that pull the steam from the stove top, filter it, and reintroduce it back into the kitchen through a discharging point in the hood fan. This does an effective job at removing the odours created when you cook, but aren't effective at dealing with moisture. I'm not a fan of these, because the No. 1 job of your exhaust fan should be to pull that moisture out of your home.
By code, bathrooms either need to have a functioning window, or a functioning exhaust fan. I'm a fan of having both, but if it's not possible to have a window in your bathroom, you NEED an exhaust fan.
We create a ton of moisture in our bathrooms. The average shower will generate a large amount of steam and vapour, and if it's not properly vented, will begin to cause mould. This is why I like to run my exhaust fan for a minimum of 30 minutes. While the fan is running, you want there to be proper airflow into the room, so keep the door or window open after you've finished showering so there's enough air to be exchanged with that moist air.
If you're running your fan for
30 minutes, and leaving the door or window open and you're seeing bits of mould creep through, your fan may not be powerful enough. Try this: turn your fan on and grab a tissue. Hold the tissue up to the fan as it runs and let go. If the fan can't hold the tissue in place, it's probably not powerful enough to suck up all that excess moisture in the room, and you'll need to have the unit serviced or replaced.
Something I see in older homes is exhaust fans that vent into the attic space. I hate seeing this. It's removing warm air, and placing
it directly in a spot where it can do major damage. The moisture and heat the fan recirculates create the perfect environment for mould to grow, causing structural damage like rot, or ice dams. We have code for a reason, and this is why code says exhaust fans must vent outdoors.
Ideally, you want your exhaust systems to have as short and smooth a run as possible to the outdoors. Why? A duct run full of bends and angles can mean your fan may not be powerful enough to move the air out of your home.
If the joints in the ducts aren't
properly sealed, that air can begin to leak out behind the walls.
Finally, if the ducts run through any cold zones in your home, (like the attic), the exhaust line will need proper insulation.
Your fans don't need much maintenance, but twice a year or so, you should give it a quick clean. Just remove the cover and check for dust build up. You'd be surprised at what can get in there.