I verified that what I have in my half bath is a NuTone 8870. The flap on the vent is not closing tightly, and cold air is flowing through there. I am not sure if they were added, or original, but there are some foam strips that the door is supposed to close against, but isn’t. I pulled the fan motor, and blades out of the duct, and shoved a plastic bag full of insulation into the duct. So at least the cold air is stopped. I debated about whether to buy another Nutone 8870, or a Panasonic WhisperWall 70 FV-08WQ1. I also considered a couple others, but not seriously. I looked at the Broan 512m, but the duct diameter is 6″, where I have a 7 1/8″ hole in my wall. That would leave a serious gap. The WhisperWall 70 has a 8″ diameter duct, but it will be easy to cut the hole a little bigger. The WhisperWall 70 cost twice as much as the 8870, but the appearance is nicer, it is quieter, it is Energy Star approved. But the big thing is that it mentions a damper with a foam seal, where the specs for 8870 don’t mention a foam seal.
With the bag of insulation stuffed into the cavity of the old fan, thus blocking the flow of cold air, I will probably wait until spring to install the new fan.
In our half bathroom, there is a bathroom fan that was there when we bought the house. I originally thought it was a fan that had been modified to go directly through the bathroom wall to the outside. I have become aware that this is how it is intended to be. I was at a local electrical supply place, and found a Nutone 8870 that looks like what I have, except it has a better looking grill (still nto great looking). I don’t know if the grill on the fan we have is the original grill, but it is ugly, and doesn’t fit flush against the wall. We get cold air coming through the fan, or possibly around it. I am planning on pulling the fan out, and reinstalling it with caulk and better insulation. I am considering buying a new fan that will look better. If what I have is a 8870, it flows 80 CFM. I could put something small in there CFM-wise as the bathroom is tiny, but I already have a hole in the wall. So I could replace the fan with something larger and will have to cut the holes bigger, or replace it with another 8870. Maybe I can get a replacement grill from Nutone? I was able to download installation instructions from Nutone’s website. It I can re-install and reduce the cold draft, and replace the grill, I will be happy. I have some part numbers for the newer grill, but when I searched for the part # on Nutone’s website, it wasn’t found.
Another model that looks interesting is the Panasonic FV-08WQ1 which blows 70 CFM, and has an 8 inch diameter duct. It is WAY quieter at only 1.1 sones compared to the Nutone 8870 which specs out at 6 sones. The Panasonic also costs twice as much, but says it has a foam seal on the damper.
I initially put foam insulation pads behind the outlet and switch plates of the outlets and switches on the outside walls. But after reading, I found out I am supposed to put them on all outlets and switches. So I bought some more, and have been doing that. I ran out of the foam pads last night so I am going to buy some more today.
I played around a little with the vent for my Jenn Air grill. The vent tubing is 5 ” diameter. I pulled off the insulation I had previous placed around the tubes. All the seams were sealed with duct tape. I shoved so insulation around the vent where it goes into the wall. I am still planning on pulling that vent off and redoing it. It may be easier than the bathroom fan.
If ound that where some wires came into the house, they were sealed with a putty stuff that was kind of dried and cracked and not sealing very well. So I pulled that stuff off, and either sprayed Great Stuff or silicone caulk in to the holes around the wires.
I was going to pull off the bathroom fan in our half bath, but haven’t done it yet. I may wait until Saturday when I am going to be home during the day, and there will be natural light. There is a little bit of a bees next inside the vent. Seeing as it is 20 degrees outside, I doubt it is active. But I will try to knock it off before I get up there face to face with it. Then after I get the fan off, I will check the insulation around the fan tube and make sure I caulk the fan to the wall, and caulk all around it to keep the cold air out. I am still kind of thinking of replacing it, but not sure what else I can put there. The vent goes straight through the wall. Maybe once I get it off, I will have a better idea of what is possible.
I am going to make an appointment to get a professional home energy audit. I think it only costs $100 and should easily be worth it by allowing me to make the most cost effective repairs.
I had seen an ad for Aldi listing a small generator for $199. It was only 2200 watts, 2500 wats peak. But during the ice storm and two day power outage (others were out longer) that occured a few years ago, we had no generator at all. We now have a wood stove, so that should cover the heating. But one of the hardest parts of the last so many power outages was trying to keep our tropical fish alive. Our hot water tank stayed hot, and we kept pooring hot water into the fish tanks until the hot water ran out. Then we boiled water on a propane stove until we were exhuasted. Fortunatly, the power came on the next day, and we didn’t lose any fish. With a small generator, we can at least keep the fish tanks going, and maybe run a couple lights, and a small TV or something. Maybe watch DVDs on my laptop computer. The generator is a KingCraft (who?). Never heard of them. But as long as it works decent I will be happy. It will only be used during power outages. So maybe couple days a year. I don’t need a top of the line Honda generator. And $199 was great price. I was surprised they had any left. I had never actually been in an Aldi store before.
Here are the specs:
5.5 hp
3.2 gallons
2200 watt rated output
2500 watt peak output
two 120 V AC outlets
one 12 V DC outlet for charging car batteries
each outlet is equipped with a circuit breaker for safe operation
4 stroke
air cooled, brushless engine
rated voltage output: 120 V AC, 12 V DC, rated frequency: 60HZ, rated AC current: 18A, rated DC current: 8.3A
1 year limited warranty
Now I need to figure out how to hook up some wiring to use it inside the house. I think I need to hook up an inlet box on the outside of my house, and run a run to an outlet inside the house. Then I can plug an extention cord or two into that. I wento to Lowes, and that was basically what th eguy there was telling me to do, but they didn’t have any inlet boxes. I will check out Home Depot, and maybe the local electrical supply place.
Also while I was Lowes, I picked up some caulk so that in the off chance we get some dry 40 plus degree weather, I will caulk some windows and doors.
I was just reading about a type of fan that you sit on top of your wood stove called an Ecofan. It doesn’t plug in or use batteries, but works from the heat of the stove. From what I read it uses the difference in temperature of the bottom of the fan (hot), and the top of the fan (cool) to gerenate a electric current to run the fan. Made by a company named Camframo, Ecofan model 800 blows 100 CFM (cubic feet per minute) and Ecofan model 802 blows 150 CFM. I had been looking at buying a backup battery system to run the fan on my stove in the case of a power outage, but backed off from that idea when I figured out that it would really on buy me a few hours unless I want to spend a BUNCH of money. But this might be a good idea to keep the hot air blowing from the stove when I can’t run the regular fan. The built in fan is rated for 85 watts, and according to what I read in the specs blows at 125 CFM. But looking at photos of the Ecofan, I find it hard to believe it would push more air than the built in fan. Still, it might be a worthwhile investment in the case of a power outage. They are listed on Home Depot’s website, but note sure if they sell them in the store, or if Lowes sells them. I will have to search for some reviews. One thing I read is that if the stove gets too hot, they can burn out.