Bathroom Ventilation

[Jerome Stanek]

Positive pressure is created by an air handler of some type, forcing air into the space. Such as a whole house air handler, or a room specific unit like th ones below the window at a hotel.

Both of those use indoor air not fresh air.

[Mel Fulks]

Bathroom fans are for removing moisture, not odors.

I've been checking product literature ....and your comment matches. But I call their statement akin to a forehead sticker
reading "I only use deodorant so I won't ruin my shirts" I hope some consumer group sues them!!

[Jason Roehl]

athroom fans are for removing moisture, not odors.
B

Well, we'll just have to disagree on that, because they do work to evacuate malodorous wafts.

[David Helm]

Well, we'll just have to disagree on that, because they do work to evacuate malodorous wafts.

Re codes; vent fans are for moisture. Removing odors is just a pleasant coincidence.

[Jason Roehl]

Re codes; vent fans are for moisture. Removing odors is just a pleasant coincidence.

See, I still disagree with that. I'm sure the codes exist to have standards on removing moisture, but they are definitely installed to remove odors, too.

I work as the maintenance tech in an historic courthouse. The building had a major renovation completed just over 25 years ago. A small part of that renovation was to install an extensive network of ventilation fans--there is nary a shower in the building, and sinks/toilets/urinals don't generate much moisture. If one of the fans goes down, the complaints begin to roll in about the smells. On top of that, in a prior life, I was a painting contractor--I painted quite a few bathrooms that had a separate W.C.--with its own fan.

[Mel Fulks]

Agree with Jason. Odors are of no concern to the code writers so they don't mention them. Few fans would be sold with
"keeps your bath room from smelling like a sewer! ". At least the companies that make "personal lubricants" have not decided to advertise their product is "great for those who have to clean heating ducts".

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

We had confined space training at work last week and the instructor talked about ventilating a space with a bad atmosphere. He said to use positive pressure because it works better than negative.

While this will not help settle the purpose of a bathroom fan, for confined space safety, the main concern is asphyxiation due oxygen displacement/depletion. You generally use positive pressure to ventilate a confined space because you fix the source of the replacement gas and can be assured that it has sufficient O2 to sustain life. In negative ventilation, the source of the replacement gas is unknown--you may be drawing in gas that has lower levels of OZ than the confined space.