For bathrooms and also kitchen vent fans serve well for ventilation purpose. Vent fans very commonly called as exhaust fans help move the smoke, moisture and bad odor out from the room. Vent fans are installed in or near the shower or tub. The exhaust points are usually placed opposite the supply air source to make sure that the fresh air is drawn through the room. For ventilation purpose, bathroom doors are not totally sealed i.e. there’s always a small gap in-between floor and door to allow fresh air to enter the room.

Now a days in modern buildings, builders provide every house with standard vent fans. But if you have renovated your house and want to buy a vent/exhaust fan, check for it RPM. RPM is revolutions per minute. There are local vent fans available that have 400-500 RPM, but I suggest you to buy an fan with higher RPM, say minimum 800-900 RPM. Higher the RPM, costlier is the fan. But the advantage of having higher RPM fans is, it is more durable and assists better air flow.

Also check for the noise level of the fan. Try buying a fan with rating 0.5 to 1.2 sones (a scale that represents degrees of loudness) which means it’s a very quiet fan.

Switch for vent fan

Have a separate switch for vent/exhaust fan. This switch can be placed on the same switch board as the lights for the bathroom. Do not have a provision of switching on-off with the light switch. Here there could be lot of electrical issues like the fan would turn on / off later than the light. Also in day time when you do not require light, it would have to be unnecessarily switched on. So I suggest avoid have same switch for light and exhaust fan.

Brands we recommend for vent fans

There are several brands like CROMPTON, HAVELLS, USHA, ORIENT and few locally available which are best to have. Vent fans are available in different sizes, but usually a fan with flaps is installed that costs around Rs 1,200/- to Rs 1,400/- per fan. The same fan can be bought for 300/- to 500/- but from a local dealer. But as I have always said, do not compromise on buying a good product as it is more durable and quality does matter.