Bath exhaust fan??

[EightFingers]

Louder fans disguise bathroom “activities”.

Also more likely to remember to turn off a loud fan.

[joe1086]

At my city home, I have a fantech remote exhaust fan in a steam shower and a panasonic recessed can light/fan over a bathtub next to it.  The fantech is a smidge louder.  The pany isn't even their most quiet model.

I have a couple bathrooms with the quiet Panasonic fans. You can barely hear them and they move a lot of air. Soft starts and selectable speeds. Higher ended ones you can add a module to auto sense humidity....which ended being not that reliable so I removed the module.

[Cooler]

I was going by this review:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW6FYkLw37U

The best room-mounted fan seems to come in at 0.5 sones. 

The remote mounted fan doubtless is no quieter when heard at the same distance.  But the actual fan will be 20+ feet away from the bathroom.  So the noise in the bathroom will be less.

You may hear the flow of air.  But you will not hear the fan.

Each time you double the distance the sound falls by 6 decibels.  One sone is 28 db.  The best room-mounted fans are rated at 0.5 sones, or 14 db. 

If the room fan is 5 feet from you while in the bathroom, then mounting the fan at 10 feet will reduce the db by half or about 7db.  So even the quietest room-mounted fan will be at least twice as loud as a remote fan. 

By mounting the fan 20 feet from the room the noise will be down to 3.5 db or 1/8 sones. 

A remote mounted bathroom exhaust fan will be quieter.  And no engineering is required. 

https://shop.fantech.net/en-US/bathroom--fans/c46837

The theoretical minimum db that can be heard by some people (but not by all) is 0.0 db.

10 db is the sounds of normal breathing.

[Cabinet Monkey]

I was going by this review

WoW - another youtoober that only gives you half the story.  As a builder I'll guess his only frame of reference is a $20-$0 fart fan that is noisy and doesn't work very well anyway.  Of course a $300+ fantech is better than that.  And since his labor is "free" to his daughter it's kinda a no brainer. 


Out in the real world though where multiple options exist and the customer almost always pays for labor - a complex single fan / multi- port exhaust system may not be the best choice.   Even if it is for some, it's far from a cut and dried decision.

The remote mounted fan doubtless is no quieter when heard at the same distance.  But the actual fan will be 20+ feet away from the bathroom.  So the noise in the bathroom will be less.The remote mounted fan doubtless is no quieter when heard at the same distance.  But the actual fan will be 20+ feet away from the bathroom.  So the noise in the bathroom will be less.

You may hear the flow of air.  But you will not hear the fan.

If the room fan is 5 feet from you while in the bathroom, then mounting the fan at 10 feet will reduce the db by half or about 7db.  So even the quietest room-mounted fan will be at least twice as loud as a remote fan. 

By mounting the fan 20 feet from the room the noise will be down to 3.5 db or 1/8 sones. 

A remote mounted bathroom exhaust fan will be quieter.  And no engineering is required. 

This is a red herring and or sales weasel talk.


All that matters is is the noise a person can hear at the inlet.    And that I'm telling you there are many situation in which a remote fantech can be louder than an all in one Panasonic.   You see, if the air noise at the fantech inlet is more than the air noise + motor noise of an ultraquiet pany, then the remote fantech is louder - plain and simple.  So you don’t hear motor noise ?  So What? 

Noise is noise.

And regarding engineering, ok, you don't really need a licensed engineer for a multi outlet whole house fan system. But you darn well better have a competent designer and installer that are used to working with these systems because you can degrade the performance real quick.  And if you've got a super insulated or tight house the and don't have a well designed makeup air system that replenishes all that air your fantech is exhausting everytime any of the inlets is used - you're gonna have other problems too.

...............................which is more complexity, time , and money.

[KC]

... This is a red herring and or sales weasel talk.

Got my morning chuckle from this.  
 

The fan in our bathroom is very old.  Quite noisy at times, other times impressively quiet.  I can't isolate the 'problem', and there's TWO layers of drywall ceiling in there with a gap of nearly an inch between them, plus the original plaster/lathe.  It still sucks, so I decided at some point early in the rehab that I'd leave it alone until it dies.  Or I do.  Not one of  my best decisions, according to LOML.  

[MarkSingleton]

I installed a Panasonic in our master bath. Amazing the difference from the usual
"Broan" hardware store cheapie. Highly recommended.

[brnhornt]

Another thought to consider is bathroom noise.  Meaning...when I'm a guest at another person's house...I appreciate a fan that makes noise...to cover my trumpet songs from burrito Wednesday....just a thought.  If this is a master bath...quiet is a nice thing.  A guest or even a half bath...noise is sometimes a nice thing.

[WaterlooMarc]

I loathe a bath fan and light that are wired together. Has to be one of the most annoying things in a modern home. It’s something that should have ridden off into the sunset along with knob and tube wiring.