Monster Bathroom exhaust Vent

[ndemge]

My wife was complaining about how HOT the bathroom gets. Take a shower, then runs the hair drier. It gets to probably 90 degrees in there!

Needed a way to evacuate that air as fast as that 1500 watt hair furnace could heat it. To send that much air into the attic like a normal exhaust fan would not work, it would pull a vacume on the house and my eyes would be pulled out of my head. Don't want that to happen.

So, Put a standard cold air return vent towards the ceiling on the wall, using 2 interior wall spaces as my vent.

In the basment, framed out a wooden duct to 9 120mm 120vac fans.

Cranked up the shower on strait hot, and turned the hair furnace on for 5 minutes. It was a pure sanah in the bathroom. In 2 minutes, it was back to the same temp as the rest of the house.

http://noel.primary.net/iboats/ndemge/fans.jpg

[grumpydasmurf]

Your basement may get damp now, no?

Brilliant idea though. That's thinking outside the box.

[ndemge]

yup, probably will get damp now.... so this summer de-humidifier gets added to the mix, as I've been wanting to get one anyway for our nice humid summers.

But a little added humidity is a very nice thing in the winter when the house in incredibly dry.

[grumpydasmurf]

Yes a little humidity is a good thing! (I've no humidifier so I end up with snots all day) Just don't let too much humidity collect in the attic. It may condense and become a problem.

[Rich]

I'll take your humidity here in Colorado. Man is it dry here - year round. Great idea by the way. Who said sticking with conventions is the way to go? Sometimes it takes a little creativity.

[roger g]

Bathroom vents have always perplexed me. How is it that when I use the bathroom and I leave the fan on for a very long time, how is it that I can still smell what I had previously deposited. I know there will be some funny remarks made but my wife doesn't think it's funny at all. It shouldn't be rocket science. Even with a fan of low cfm's should clean all the air in short order, but it never does. An average bathroom is about 500 cu ft so where is the problem. I find most bathrooms are the same. My wife has threatened to call a restaurant range hood company and get a huge stainless steel exhaust canopy over my toilet with a pressure sensitive seat activated switch. I t will be hard trying to read AND hang on.
So the question is: why does it take sooooo long to air out the smells of a toilet. With moisture they seem to work just fine. Don't tell me smells arre stickier. This is an honest question. Really.

roger

[Rich]

LMAO.. picturing myself with a turbine above me trying to read, hang on, and umm.. yeah you get the picture.
The problem, my opinion, is that air comes into the bathroom from under the door..etc and the fan pulls it out which creates air flow currents. Moisture is hot and tends to rise before it actually falls onto surfaces whereas smells are more microscopic and so tend to follow air currents. Think of convection air currents - hot air rises and as it rises it cools and then falls.. smells tend not to rise and therefore don't get close enough to the fan to be cleared.

[roger g]

I thought of that also. I figured that the airflow was only going from point "A" (under the door) to point "B" which is the vent. I tried opening the door which didn't help much other than receive a complaint from the rest of the condo owners. I even tried flapping the newspaper around trying to get "it" from all the corners and it still didn't seem to help much. And to all you nay sayers: yes I do flush it, sometimes 2-3 times just to see if it helps. My wife even wants me to vacuum the air after I leave. Give me break, it isn't going to stay in the bag though come to think of it, it might kill dust mites. I've often thought about putting a circulating fan in the room as well as a good exhaust system. Has anyone out there actually got a bathroom fan that cleans out all the manly smells (at least that's what I call it) in a few minutes rather than an hour or so.
Waiting with trembling anticipation.

Roger

[ndemge]

Mine Does!



... Back in Highschool, when sitting in Chemistry class, the teacher sprayed ONE spritz of purfume in the front of the 30' classroom... within 5 minutes, EVERYONE in the room could smell it. You have to delute it enough that you don't recognize the smell.... how many times do you have to replace the air in the room to do that?

Just like Nuclear material, Farts have a half-life. You contaminate the fresh air as soon as it enters the bathroom..... might take 10 rooms of air to get the smell gone.

10x5x8 room : 400 CF 50CFM Fan, 8 Minutes to replace air once..... now I see why it takes an hour :)

[roger g]

Wow! that makes some sense. Of course the rated cfm would be completely different than actual cfm so it would take longer.
It actually reminds me of a joke my mother told me years ago. This woman is alone in an elevator when she farted. The smell was incredible but luckily she had in her purse a can of Pine Scent. She sprays it around and sniffs with satisfaction. Just then, the elevator stops and a man get in and starts to sniff the air. "Isn't that a wonderful smell" she says. He replies " I don't know, but it smells like someone shit beside a pine tree."

Roger

[roger g]

what the heck is caca.

Roger

[grumpydasmurf]

LOL I dunno how I missed the last few posts of the conversation but I think the answer is not the fan but a better diet :)

I bet some kind of intake would clear up the air much quicker. This is the principal of an attic fan.

[Rich]

What strikes me as really funny is that we're talking about farts in the Show Off forum. Good thinking ndemge - didn't think about air changes. Air changes tie directly to what grumpy mentions.. air enough to displace existing air. caca - crap - poopoo - LOL. I especially like the explanation of a fart having a half-life.

[grumpydasmurf]

Yeah my girl friend was laughing that we took the time to break the process of fart dissipation into a science that could be tracked and predicted.

[Rich]

haha.. the finer things in life take time to work out - and I just happen to do my best thinking on the can.

[JCA]

Man this is cool, fart talk...

This has to be the greatest forum on the planet!

[Dragon]

You people aint right.