How noisy is your ventilation system?

[theseahorse]

I know this is probably a bit of an odd question, but I know lots of people talk about how wonderfully quiet it is when they upgrade torches from a Hothead, but I wondered whether the fans in your ventilation systems compensate for this by being noisy and distracting you.

I may be able to get hold of a kitchen hood with a fan that extracts up to 750 cubic metres per hour, which according to my calculations, seems about right. It is apparently 62 decibels and I know that I often turn our kitchen fan off when cooking as it gets a bit noisy. I guess you can't be fussy when you need to ensure that your ventilation is adequate, but are some systems quieter than others?

Would anyone be interested in sharing the type/strength of fan/ventilation they use and whether they find it too noisy to work with? Or do you just block the noise out by listening to music?

Sorry if this is daft question. I think I think about things a bit too much. I should probably just get out there and start making beads.

Thanks

Sam

[Lush!]

I can't help with any of the technical stuff, cos I just don't remember but I have one of those bathroom type extractors fitted into the window (I just know it was the biggest one I could get and it cost about £30).

It starts off fine, just enough noise to let me know its on but after a few hours it makes a heck of a racket!  As I mostly work till very late at night, I do wonder if it annoys the neighbours!

[Dragonfire Glass]

 As I mostly work till very late at night, I do wonder if it annoys the neighbours!

Dog during the day, extractor at night!
Are they still speaking to you?     

[Lush!]

Oh blimey!  Different sides, thankfully 

[Sulis (Hazel)]

My extractor fan is the kitchen hood type, which is as noisy as anything. I compensate by putting the radio on. 

Can't complain, it was from Freecycle and does a fab job with the fumes!!

[Hotglass28]

Mine is a hydroponics fan with a rating of over 800cfm.  Its noisy without a controller on it.  I should imagine it will still be noisy even with it turned down a tad.

Got my ipod ready.

Denise

[LittleMoo]

My old fan was only 250cfh, which I now realise was rubbish, and was pretty noisy - much louder than my Nortel Minor. I've just bought a new fan which is 750cfh but it isn't installed yet so I don't know how noisy it is. I just got used to the old one really, just zoned out from the drone.

[theseahorse]

Thanks Julie, Colette, Rozelle, Hazel and Denise,

I appreciate your feedback on this. It seems that most powerful fans will be noisy. I hadn't really thought about the neighbours, but this might be a consideration, particularly for sheds down the garden and close to other houses.

Having looked into it, I think the quietest powerful fan is probably an Acoustic fan as these are designed with this in mind. However, they seem to be the most expensive fans too.

Out of interest, for anyone who is buying a fan and is concerned about how noisy it is, the noise level is often stated in decibels. Here are some links to give you an idea what a particular decibel value relates to:
http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Sounds/Decibles.htm

For example, the cooker hood that I was looking at was 62 decibels, which is as loud as normal conversation or perhaps laughter. Some of the hydoponics acoustic fans are nearer 30 decibels - so they are as quiet as a whisper. Neither are likely to damage hearing, but this may be interesting to know if you are particularly sensitive to noise. Decibels are also also expressed in a non-linear fashion (based on a logarithmic scale), so if you double the decibel rating, you more than double the volume of noise.

I hope someone finds this helpful

All the best

Sam