Discuss Condensation on a bathroom extractor fan in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net
The bathroom door is going to be fitted, it is a larger than average bathroom with 2.7m height ceilings in an old Victorian house (been modernised)
Good point, I will wait and see
Yes it does,
The door off could well be the problem, with no heat in the room using the bath/shower the condensation will be greater.
Exactly. If the fan surface is cold when the steam hits it it will turn to water.
^^^^^^^joking joking joking. Do not do this - dangerous ^^^^^^^
----.....why not???? I have just set this up while are lass is in the bath!!!lol
11pm is the new 10pm.
11pm is when Jay has had a drink...lol. Only on Fridays and Satudays.lol
I don't mind mind having a laugh with anyone. Even if your'e a plumber...lol. I will only post if I have something instructive to say.....unless someone has misread a post!lol. But after that......most things go!!
Jay
Hi got a customer who has a icon 45 bathroom extractor fan, fitted by myself and it develops water droplets on the front grill and drips on the floor. It is flush mounted in the wall through a 40mm polystyrene backed plaster board. I have put some expanding foam between the wall and the back of the plasterboard. Due to the nature of the wall I put a duct through the wall 150mm long, sloping out with a back draft flapper on the wall no water runs in the duct, it only forms on front grill. Any suggestion? Probably going to swop fan to a different brand. Never had this problem with this particular fan before
Hi Tex, when does it develop this condensation? Before it runs, while it is running or when it switches off? What are the conditions in the bathroom at the time? Condensation levels and bath full of hot water or empty, or shower running hot etc? It is just as much a case of identify the full circumstances like you would if fault finding an electric circuit ... without possession of the full facts you, or other members, may come to the wrong conclusion! That brings with it of course possibly expensive 'stabs in the dark' which do not solve the real problem.
If the condensation forms while the fan is running and the level of humidity at the time is high, it could be a case of 'you cannae change the laws of physics' as Scotty used to say! The lowering of air pressure in the room close to the fan as a result of the fan moving air out of the room and subsequent rise in air pressure at the stagnation points on the grill in front of the fan mean that the dewpoint falls and then rises again leading to the condensation on the grill. The only ways to avoid the condensation are to change the local atmospheric conditions at the grill; either:
- Heat the fan grill to above the dewpoint temperature for the combination of air pressure, temperature and humidity at that point.
- Heat the air so that the temperature of the air at the grill is above its dewpoint for the humidity level at the time; difficult if the surface of the grill is cold leading to cooling of the air and condensation ... refer to the above!
- Reduce the pressure fall and rise by reducing the fan speed and therefore extraction rate!
- Do what the Victorians did ... open the window and ventilate the room after bathing or showering! Closing the door after exiting the room of course to reduce the loss of heated ... and humid air from the rest of the house. Return to close the window when air has changed and condensation evaporated!
I think like many things, in the electrical and wider world, we forget that there are some things that those who went before knew and based their designs and installations upon. Victorian ... indeed the woodwork in any house will decay if exposed to moisture. Victorian houses are designed to be well ventilated! Wrapping our houses in insulation and expecting to live in temperatures of ~ 20 degrees Celsius + will, unless we also prevent the moist air from penetrating to cold surfaces, result in condensation and then rot in timber. It is a fallacy to believe that insulation and vapour barriers can prevent this ... you have been warned! ;-)) Friendly warning but serious none the less!
I think that the OP is ambigious.
We have an Icon 15 in our cloakroom - it never has condensation on it and that's because its cool in there.
To have condensation "dripping" off a fan cover I can only imagine this happening when:
1. The room is cool and the shower is used, the fan is not used, creating condensation on the "cool" surface of the fan
2. The house is hot, the bathroom is poorly heated, the door is left open and the excessive warmth is condencing on the cover of the fan.
3. Inadequate ventilation into the bathroom and the fan is only switched on after the shower has finished.
Which is why it would be wise to install whole house ventilation with a central unit combined with heat recovery just as they do in North America and what has to be done in timber frame houses , as already mentioned
Reply to Condensation on a bathroom extractor fan in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net
We get it, advertisements are annoying!
Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.