Can I save some money?!!

eratt2323

Hi all,

Was wondering wether or not there is a product on the market were by I could install an extractor fan in my bathroom that works off energy created by the steam from the shower, I no it sounds expensive but if anyone has got any info I would be more than gratefull,

Cheers,

Tom.

DVardysShadow

If the steam is visible, then there is very little energy there. Energy of course is neither created nor destroyed, merely transformed. You need to study thermodynamics to understand more deeply why this idea will not work at all well.

ariarnia

how did old 'extractor fans' work? I ask because my nan has something directly fitted to the window in her bathroom that's basically a fan.

It has no power to it that I can see - it does have a pull cord (I just checked)

It seems to work when the bathroom gets substantially hotter than the air outside, then it spins and the hot air goes out?

any ideas?

brig001

eratt2323, not exactly what you were thinking of, but you can have the heat back from the warm air/steam that is leaving the bathroom http://www.vent-axia.com/range/hr25.html not cheap though, and I have no idea how good they are.

ariarnia, the air pushes the fan, not the other way round. Warm air rises and pushes itself out through the hole, spinning the propeller thing on its way. The trouble is, if it is windy, they tend to go backwards blowing the steam around the house.

HTH,
Bri

eratt2323

Thank you dvardysshadow,

thanks for your advice on this matter, it is obviously alot more complex than first thought, the more I think about it you would probably need a hell of alot more steam than just off a shower to run an electrical application such as an extractractor fan, again thanks for the advice.

Tom.

eratt2323

brig001, thanks very much for the info, extremley helpfull.

phill99

An standard 4" extractor uses probably no more than 200 watts of electricity. On that basis you could run it for 5 hours for 1 kwh of electricity (app. 13p). If you went to a system that depended on the steam form the shower to make it work then the shower stopped, the fan would stop. This in itself creates immense problems esp. if the bathroom is internal. Moisture has to be extracted from building or the resulting condensation problems will cause far more damage than the cost of running the fan.

NeverInDebt

Not sure if its suitable for a bathroom but at one time you could get little vents in windows that are round that revolve on there own, my next door neighbour use to have one but I never seen them in shops, but they have like slits in them