Okay I actually do understand the purpose of the bathroom fan; it gets the steam out of the bathroom after a super hot shower, right? Well turns out I never turn it on. I suppose I don't shower in sauna temperatures. Also we tend to shower with the door open.
Or, is the point that it rids the room of odors? Thus, the nickname 'fart fan'
The duct from the bathroom fan simply terminates in the attic space. I've been reading the threads explaining the reasons to vent it to the outdoors, but I don't want to. I have a beautiful house with new cedar siding and I don't want to ugly it up with a big vent sitting in the middle of the gable.
So here's the question; why? Can't I simply not use the fan? The steam or stink doesn't bother me. Do I need to put an end on the vent I don't use?
Best Answer
Since yours vents into your attic space I would never use it either. Probably the biggest use of a bathroom vent fan is to help keep mold down in bathrooms, especially in humid areas. Lots of lawsuits against housing tracks have happened in humid areas where builders just put the cheapest fan in and a couple years later the residents find mold. Most bathrooms that are bigger than a closet have undersized fans and don't really do anything but make noise.
Building code changes will happen, if not all ready changed, that homes will have to have a certain air exchange per hour. This is because the modern homes are being built pretty much air tight, or about as close to it as you can get with doors, windows and other entry points for air to get in a house. Builders are starting to use bath fans for this, and a lot of them are being designed to be used 24/7, with very little noise.
Either way, do not pump moisture into attic spaces.