Homes built in recent years are often larger and more airtight than in the past in order to keep conditioned air from escaping. These larger homes often have larger bathrooms with whirlpool baths, steam showers and other amenities to provide added comforts.
As a result, many homeowners and builders have recognized the need for quiet ventilating fans. Homeowners want to enjoy a quiet, relaxing whirlpool bath without being disturbed by a loud ventilating fan. They choose a quiet model in order to fully enjoy their home investment.
Builders that use airtight windows, doors, caulking and house wrap want to provide adequate ventilation to reduce any accumulation of moisture and indoor air pollutants. They choose quiet ventilating fans that can be operated for a long run time and at the same time will not be objectionably loud. Builders often wire these fans with delay-off timers or duty-cycle timers so the homeowner gets the full benefit of the fan.
The Home Ventilating Institute (HVI), a ventilating manufacturer's association, has created a Certified Product Rating Programs in order to provide a fair and credible method of comparing ventilation performance of similar products. HVI members are dedicated to building quiet ventilating fans as a part of their product line and publishing accurate sound level data for consumers and building professionals to view.
Ventilating fan sound levels are measured in sones. A sone is an internationally recognized measurement of sound output. Sones translate decibel readings into numbers that correspond to the way people sense loudness.
Sones follow a linear scale, like inches. Double the sones means twice as loud. In contrast, decibels follow a logarithmic scale, which is a multiple of numbers. Sone readings offer easy, quick and accurate comparisons for laymen and engineers.
In technical terms, a sone is equal in loudness to a pure 1,000 Hertz per second tone at 40 decibels above the listener's threshold of hearing. In layman's terms, one sone is equivalent to the sound of a quiet refrigerator in a quiet kitchen (source HVI). So, whether new construction or remodeling consider the aesthetic quietness and indoor air quality provided by a low sone ventilating fan and when comparing models, visit www.hvicertified.org where you can compare all certified ventilating fans and learn more about residential mechanical ventilation.
