Green Building Community
Automatic Bath Fan Sensors Reduce Humidity, Pollutants, and Odors
Posted by: Rate It Green Team
As Green Builder Matt Hoots of Sawhorse, Inc. points out, most people don’t use ventilation properly. Exhaust fans can be a missed opportunity for improving Indoor air quality, or IAQ, because so many people don’t turn them on, or they turn them off too soon.
In the kitchen, excessively loud hoods are also less likely to be used. This means that cooking emissions are lingering in the air, and this problem is exacerbated in homes with natural gas stoves, where emissions include carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and fine particulate matter (PM). Natural gas cooking causes or worsens a range of health problems from short-term health effects to long-term respiratory and other diseases.
In bathrooms, exhaust fans can help remove excessive moisture and odors. Occupants frequently forget to turn bath fans on, and they also commonly turn them off when they leave the room, which can cause humidity (and odors) to linger longer than necessary. Over time, excess humidity can damage surfaces and furniture, and can also support mildew and mold growth.
Matt reviews a recent project where he installed a Panasonic bath fan with two sensors. The motion sensor stays on for a period of time you can set up to an hour, and the moisture sensor turns on when it senses humidity and remains on until the relative humidity reaches the set level. This fan has some clear benefits, including:
- Reduces mold, mildew and microbial risk
- Preserves finishes
- Bathrooms will smell better!
In this renovation, Matt added a new bath fan and removed switches according to design preferences. But fan switches are available, and they can override or compliment fan settings.
What ventilation and other retrofits can you share for improving air quality? We look forward to learning from your projects. Ask your questions as well!
Related discussions:
- Remote Hood Exhaust Fan Retrofit Delivers Significant Noise Reduction
- Whisper Green Fans from Panasonic Eco Solutions - Quiet Prevention for Moisture and Condensation (and Smart!)
- Reactive Sensors and Controls for Home Ventilation, Featuring Corbett Lunsford
- Customized Switches and Sensors for Indoor Air Quality || Swidget
- Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) 101 - An Introduction, and Starting a Wider Conversation
- A Rate It Green Content Guide to: Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
- Walking and Talking about Fresh Air and Ventilation with Green Building Expert Matt Hoots - and Oliver
- What is the Future of Natural Gas Cooking?
- Natural Gas Cooking - An Update and Recent News
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