House tip: Prevent bathroom mildew by automating your vent fan

A high level of humidity in your bathroom can result in mildew growth on paint and other surfaces.

Many bathrooms have vent fans, some will sense humidity and will automatically run until the humidity level drops. If you have a manually switched vent fan you may find yourself forgetting to turn it on. If you remember to turn the fan on you might forget to turn it back off.

We would often forget to turn the fan on until after showering and end up turning it off too early to avoid leaving it on when we went to do something else. Then I found an vent fan replacement switch like this:

This is the Leviton Humidity sensor and fan control found on Amazon for $25. The Home Depot by our house also carries similar humidity sensors.

The few sensors I've looked at appear to work similarly. They detect humidity and automatically run for some amount of time after the humidity level falls.

The bottom part of the sensor is a button that you can press to turn the fan on and off. If you turn the fan on with the button the sensor will start a timer that will turn the fan off after a preset amount of time. This lets you turn the fan on and walk away without worrying about the fan running all day.

The sensor is almost a drop in replacement for a standard switch. The biggest difference is that the sensor requires its own neutral connection as it is continuously powered.

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