Bathroom fan installation
 

Hello

I was wondering if it is necessary to vent the bathroom fan to the outside if the space above the bathroom is an attic. Can I just vent into the soffit or does it need to be vented through the roof/outside wall?:thumbup:

Thanks

A soffit vent is acceptable but not ideal---some of the moisture will get sucked back into the attic -adding to the moisture load up there--

Thats gonna open a big can of worms!

Just to make sure I dont step on it yet again today Im gonna error on the safe side here and say:
Vent it through one of those dryer vent looking things ,but when you wire it make sure you hook the ground wire to the housing and the ground wire for plug if there is one.
Just to be safe you should run it to a dedicated circuit hooked to a combination afci/gfci breaker in your panel!
If I missed anything Im sure somebody will be along shortly to correct it,my insurance cant afford anymore screwups tonight! :laughing:

The mechanical code calls for the exhaust to be vented to the outside, not into the attic.

If the soffit is aluminum, that's fine.
The theory with wood soffit is it could eventually rot from moisture from the bath. If you have ridge vent or wherever, hang your hose there.
Just put it close enough that all the moisture gets out of the attic.

That is a bit of overkill for a bathroom fan, should be able to tie it into the circuit that the bathroom light is on. GFI is not bad option if you can do it.

I was just covering myself on that one,i got hammered pretty hard about not suggesting that somebody wire his basement circuits into afci's ,so i just wanted to play it safe! :laughing:
Id say to wire it into the existing lighting circuit in most cases so it comes on at same time as the bathroom light. :thumbsup:

The fan may need to run longer than the light in order to remove the moisture.

Regardless of insulation on ducting, if you are in a cold climate you will find that that nice warm humid air will generate alot of condensation in the ducting and like said previously, ensure you vent completely to the outside, you don't want all that moisture in your attic.

Mark

You definitely need to vent to the outside, either through the roof or the sidewall. If you back into the attic space you will end up with mold in a short period of time. Also it's against code not to vent to the outside.

Hi Noviceshock, You should definitely vent to the outside through the roof or a side wall. Venting through a vented soffit will just allow most of the hot, moist air to go back up through the soffit and into your roof.

Good Luck with it!

Jim

I merged both same question threads, that only confused members. Please post once in one forum, thank you, Gary