How Big of an Exhaust Fan Do I Need for My Garage?

How Big of an Exhaust Fan Do I Need for My Garage?  

If you walk into your garage and smell fumes, start feeling faint, start feeling nauseous, or otherwise suffer ill effects, it's a sure sign that the area has inadequate ventilation. The next question is how big of a fan you'll need to bring in enough fresh air and clear out enough exhaust.

In order to answer this question, you must consider several factors that go into proper exhaust fan sizing. To make this easier, Exhaust Fans Direct provides a handy calculator, which you can find by using the previous link.

The Size of the Garage

This is the most basic factor to consider. If you have a larger space, you'll need garage exhaust fans that can move more air per minute. This is accomplished not just by getting a larger garage exhaust fan, but by using more of them. By using more, you get a more-uniform ventilation result as well as faster air exchange.

The Fact that it is a Garage

As can be seen on Industrial Fans Direct's chart, the purpose of the building or area is important for determining how much air exchange is required. Since a garage has cars running inside of it, even if only to come and go, it needs much more ventilation than a space that doesn't include sources of air pollution. Here, you'll want to exchange the air several times per hour to ensure that carbon monoxide and other harmful exhaust contaminants are always within good health tolerances.

Building Design

Some garages have plenty of exterior wall space. These can have several smaller fans installed, each leading directly to the outside. In these cases, you will likely want to set things up in this way so you get good ventilation in all parts of the area.

Other garages, unfortunately, don't have that much direct access to the outside. They may be parts of other buildings or neighboring units. Then, you will have to use a larger exhaust fan for garage ventilation in order to make up for the lack of places to put extra fans.

If the garage is underground, it will typically need to be served by several huge fans. This is because each one has to be connected to the outside via ducts, and it can be cost-prohibitive to add a lot of smaller ones. These garages may also need big fans that push air from the intake area to the exhaust fans' pickup areas. Underground garages tend to be very large themselves, which makes it even more important to have powerful ventilation systems.

Choosing Specific Fans

Once you determine how often you need to exchange the air, you just need to find fans that can provide the needed CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air exchange. J&D Manufacturing garage fans are some to consider. These wall-mounted shutter fans come in a variety of sizes, give you a choice of continuous or variable speeds, and even the choice of whether to plug them in or have them hardwired.