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Posted to misc.consumers.house
Jonathan Kamens
 
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Default Bathroom fan - how long to leave on?

You leave the fan on until the room's humidity has returned
to normal, obviously.

If you can't tell just by feeling the air, then turn the fan
off a few minutes after the mirror finishes unfogging.

Unless you've got a smoke detector right outside the bathroom
door, it's fine to open the door. This will allow the room
to defog faster (both because some of the steam leaves
through the door, and because opening the door will increase
the air flow through the fan), which means less wear and tear
on the fan and on the paint or wallpaper (which don't
particularly like being wet).

Opening the door is a problem when there's a smoke detector
near it because steam escaping from the bathroom can set off
the smoke detector.

If you want to be particularly obsessive about this, note
that there are fans which have moisture sensors and shut off
automatically when they're no longer needed.