wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm working on a bathroom update. 1950s vintage, 70ish square foot,
southeast MI. I have an existing exhaust fan/light that needs
attention as birds invaded the attic and built a nest in the plastic
exhaust pipe. Since I have to crawl up there any way I'm going to
replace it with rigid metal. I figure I might as well replace the fan
itself since it is probably 25+ years old. The light has a 7 watt bulb
since I only need it for a night light.

I was looking at units such as this:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...732&lpage=none

with the addition of a heater. I have the heat drop back to about 63
in the winter at night, so it would be nice to warm up the bathroom
quickly for late night trips or early in the morning if the central
heat has not caught up in time for a shower.

I would have to do some additional wiring with the heated version, but
it would not be too difficult as I have an unused attic fan that
already has a dedicated 20 amp circuit I can steal.

Are these units actually worth the extra cost and installation headache?


Although these combo models do produce a lot of heat, your bathroom will not
feel warm as soon as you turn it on. It will take some time to warm up the
space as the fan usually blows the hot air out gently and it is on the
ceiling where the heat rises to anyway.

The infrared bulbs that someone else suggested will give you an instant
feeling of warmth, but will not heat the space quickly. My suggestion for a
nice cozy warm feeling is to install a heat lamp unit AND an underfloor mat
heater. Using both of these at the same time will consume less watts than
the combo fan/heater/nightlight unit.

Most of the complaints I hear about bath exhaust fans are concerning the
noise. I suggest one of the Panasonic models to replace your existing fan.