Cold Air Coming Out Of Bathroom Exhaust Fan

Some of the fancy fans have lights in them and i am told that the fans vary in quality.

Cold air coming out of bathroom exhaust fan.

The back draft flapper may be stuck in a shut position. This is a device to close off the vent for air flow trying to come in from the vent pipe. Caulk around the base of the exhaust fan with acrylic siliconized caulking and replace the insulation around. The fan itself should have an internal flapper damper that is supposed to block cold air but these dampers usually fit poorly inside the fan housing and air can seep by them.

The purpose of the bathroom exhaust fan is to remove excess moisture and odors from the bathroom. The fan pushes the moist air you create from taking a shower outside so you don t rot everything in your bathroom. Heat recovery is not a function of the bath fan. How to stop cold air from a bathroom vent step 1.

The flapper isn t an air tight seal. If you want to stop cold air you need to have a great damper or double damper at the exhaust hood where the air leaves your home. While the energy in the air that is exhaust air is lost it is critical to continue to operate bath fans to remove excess moisture odors. I guess they are supposed to have flaps in them too.

Clear any insulation away from the unit and use metal tape to cover areas where air may enter the bathroom. The flaps stop the cold outside air from leaking directly into your bathroom and house. Other times the flapper will be part of the roof or wall vent where the vent pipe exhausts to the outside. This simple device can be purchased at any hardware store and will keep all unwanted cold drafts out of your bathroom.

Maybe the flapper is binding and held open or maybe you have a really strong exhaust somewhere else in the house that sucks air in through the bath fan. Yes any time you operate a bathroom exhaust vent fan you are removing stale conditioned air from inside and replacing it with outdoor air. This will only allow air to flow out and will restrict cold air from coming in. If this has always been a problem you can a help it some by installing about 4 of flexiable hose and mount it with curves like an inverted j or maybe reconnect origional one b replace it with a better fan and add a hose if the present fan is loud.