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<\/p>\nProper bathroom ventilation is more important than you might think. If there is too much moisture in your bathroom, you might end up with mold spores that can lead to rot and structural damage to your home. To avoid all those problems, you need to set up proper ventilation in your bathroom and get a bathroom fan that suits your needs. It must be powerful enough to get the job done while not being too loud.<\/p>\n
To learn about different noise levels, you should know what bathroom fan sones are, what they measure, and why that is important. Keep reading to find out more.<\/p>\n
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Most household appliances make some noise – your fridge, dishwasher, laundry washer, TV, and more. The same goes for your bathroom fan.<\/p>\n
Having a reasonably quiet bathroom fan can be very important, especially if you want your bathroom to be your oasis of peace and quiet. That is why you want your fans sone score to be as low as possible. You may find our post on the quietest exhaust fans<\/a> useful as well.<\/p>\n A sone is a measure of the sound as the average listener registers it. Loudness is a subjective measure, unlike decibels which measure sound pressure levels. Also, unlike decibels, sones grow exponentially. This means that four sones are twice as loud as two sones while they are twice as loud as a single sone and so on.<\/p>\n When getting a new bathroom fan, remember to check its \u201csone levels.\u201d<\/p>\n Though a sone is a somewhat subjective measure, most authorities agree that one sone equals the amount of noise a refrigerator makes while quietly humming in a silent room. Conversely, two sones equal the noise that two fridges would make, etc.<\/p>\n To put it differently, two sones are the typical office space\u2019s noise level, while a normal conversation is roughly three sones loud. Since this unit grows exponentially, five sones are as loud as a restaurant during peak hours, while most people turn the volume on their TV sets up to four. Finally, loud people on a sports match at a stadium or in an arena make noise that is approximately equal to six sones.<\/p>\n This is all you need to know since bathroom fans can be as quiet as 0.3 sones or as loud as six sones.<\/p>\n Remember what you just read about the difference between decibels and sones? Decibels measure physical sound, but there is more to it for us humans. The way we perceive sound depends on the pitch or frequency of the sound as much as it does on any other factor.<\/p>\n Lower frequencies seem quieter to us than the high frequencies do. Sones as a measure take this into account, so a lower sone rating means that a fan will seem softer to us while a higher sone rating is something that you will want to avoid.<\/p>\n A bathroom fan that scores between 0.3 and 1 scone is considered perfectly quiet. Remember that the lowest possible score is approximately as loud as leaves rustling on the ground, so there is no need to pursue such a model unless you are highly sensitive to noise.<\/p>\n Everything below three sones is considered average. But if your bathroom fan scores four sones or more, it can be regarded as (too) loud.<\/p>\n Older fans tend to be louder while modern fans have a sone rating that goes up to three sones.<\/p>\n As long as you are not too sensitive to noise, there is no need to go through the trouble of obtaining an extremely quiet bathroom fan.<\/p>\n For instance, some two-sones fans are ten times less expensive than those with a 0.3 sones rating. The higher rating merely means that you will know when your fan is turned on in real life. Most likely, you won\u2019t even be able to hear a fan this loud through closed doors.<\/p>\n An average fan with a 2.0 rating is strong enough to properly vent a bathroom that is 70 square feet or less.<\/p>\n One more instance when you should care about the loudness level of your fan is if you have an old unit that makes very little noise or no noise at all. A fan that is old and quiet is most likely broken. To test this, grab a piece of toilet paper and put it close to the fan. If the paper sticks to it, congrats – your fan still works.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t want your bathroom fans just to be quiet – you want it to be powerful too. That is where another critical unit of measure comes in. CFM or cubic feet per minute measurements show how quickly your fan exhausts and moves air. For example, a 100 CFM rated fan can move one hundred cubic feet of air in one minute.<\/p>\n The lowest-rated fan is 50 CFM, which should be enough for a smaller bathroom, while an average bathroom demands a fan between 75-100 CFM strong.<\/p>\n If the CFM is too high, your bathroom fan will be too loud, while a too low score means that your bathroom won\u2019t be adequately ventilated.<\/p>\n You will want CFM to match your bathroom\u2019s square footage as a general rule. For example, if your bathroom is nine feet wide and five feet long, you will want a fan with a CFM score of 45 or more.<\/p>\n If your ceiling is exceptionally tall, this is one more factor to consider. Since there is more vertical space, you will need a more robust fan. Also, if your bathroom is particularly huge – larger than one hundred feet – add 50 CFM after you calculate the square footage.<\/p>\n Alternatively, you can add 50 CFM for every appliance – a bathtub, a toilet, or a shower. For a jacuzzi, you will have to add 100 CFM.<\/p>\n Whatever you do, you should not try to manipulate numbers by obtaining a fan with a too low CFM just to get a lower sone rating. For more information, see our post on how bathroom exhaust fans work<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are some fans at the market that can run at a slower speed. While this will decrease the noise level, the fan will also make it less effective. However, this doesn\u2019t mean you do not have any bathroom exhaust venting options<\/a> to make your bathroom quieter.<\/p>\n To make your bathroom less noisy, you should put materials that absorb the sounds.<\/p>\n For instance, you could put cork flooring tiles on your bathroom floor. These will reduce noise levels and won\u2019t be harmed by the moisture and humidity of your bathroom.<\/p>\n You can also install a sound-blocking door sweep. You should also seal the bathroom door with weather stripping for better insulation and soundproofing of your bathroom.<\/p>\n If the noise bothers you, consider getting a low-flow toilet. It will make less noise than a regular one and be better for the environment.<\/p>\n This brings us back to the bathroom fans – if a quiet bathroom is your number one priority consider keeping the fan on a separate switch, so it doesn\u2019t automatically turn on when the light is turned on. That way, people won\u2019t have to turn the fan on if they don\u2019t want to. Check out this guide to bathroom fan switches<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\nWhat Are Sone Levels?<\/h2>\n
What Does Sone Rating Mean for a Bathroom Fan?<\/h2>\n
Should You Care About Bathroom Fan Sones?<\/h2>\n
CFM and Sones – A Relation You Should Know About<\/h2>\n
Ways To Soundproof Your Bathroom<\/h2>\n
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