Panasonic FV-11VH2 WhisperWarm Fan/Heater Combination, Ventilation Fan, Extremely Quiet, Long Lasting, Easy to Install, Code Compliant, Energy Star Certified, White

This unit is quiet, bright, and heats well. The 30+ year-old light-heater-fan in my bathroom needed to be replaced. Sometimes it blew wasps into the bathroom - not a good thing right after a shower, or ever. This unit was a lot of work for me to install, but that has more to do with it's location in my attic than the product. I will advise this, however. My brilliant wife suggested suspending it with para-cord from the roof joist thru the ceiling sheet rock hole into the bathroom while I hooked up the wiring. Sooooooo very smart. We popped an eye screw into the joist above it, ran para-cord thru the mounting holes on the lip that surrounds the item, and let it hang while I worked on it. Saved me a ton of neck pain. I cut the hole in the ceiling pretty carefully so that this guy fits snugly, so I couldn't drop it in from above like others mention, that mounting lip wouldn't fit thru the hole. And, my bathroom is on the edge of my house and there is very little space to work up there due to the slope of the roof. I spent a lot of time crawling and slithering around up there due to how tight it was, but that's not really pertinent to this discussion.Another thing to consider is this, I could not get it in the closely measured and cut hole in my ceiling with the outlet nozzle and mounting hardware attached. Look at the picture of the item. That white cover will be off when you install it, but that HUGE nozzle and the little mounting holders (there is one, the little silver slotted bracket by the nozzle, and a longer one on the other side) get in the way. I could not angle it sufficiently to slip it up in the hole with that nozzle on it. I didn't want to cut a hole in my ceiling any larger than absolutely necessary. But...., that nozzle comes right off, as do the mounting brackets. So, I took them off rendering the item just a rectangular box. I was worried that perhaps something inside the unit would also be attached by the screws used to attach the nozzle and mounting brackets, but happily such is not the case. Then I slipped the unit up into my carefully cut hole (I do hate getting sheet rock dust down my shirt - but taking my time with the hole paid off). We still had it suspended with that para-cord, so raising it up was not too hard to do with a helper up in the attic. I screwed two screws thru the provided holes in the lip surrounding the unit, and then hurried up to the attic as it hung there, supported also by that para-cord we moved to just the other side lip holes. Once slid into the ceiling hole, I reinstalled the mounting hardware and nozzle from up in the attic, and screwed the mounting brackets into the one beam I had. I had to reattach the mounting brackets to the unit with the mounting arms already slid in them (while lying on my stomach in the attic), and that was tricky, but doable. As you maybe can tell, the install required occasional help from another person.This might (hopefully) not apply to you, but because my bathroom is up against an external wall of my house, there was no beam on the other side of the hole I cut to make a wooden box to mount this to/in. The original fan had been mounted/screwed to just one beam-it was substantially lighter than this unit. More clearly, I only had one beam in my ceiling that I could screw this into. So, I cut one of the mounting arms shorter and reversed it so that both mounting arms screwed into my single beam. Then, I ran a cable between the joist up in the roof (that eye-bolt we put up there to tie the para-cord to for suspending the item during wiring was initially intended only for this task) and attached it to a smaller eye-bolt I bolted into the other side of the unit. I chose a spot to attach the eye-bolt carefully that would not interfere with any of the internal workings. I used a "turnbuckle" between the unit and the roof joist so that I could tighten it up just enough to get it level. That way, although only one side was screwed into a ceiling beam, the other side was suspended and "braced" securely so that the item won't sag. Remember, it's pretty heavy. It needs support on both sides.If you've never worked with wiring a triple switched item, you may want to have your helper be someone qualified in such electrical wiring. Honestly, I've done a lot of two-way switch, regular switch, and simple outlet work, but this was initially clearly over my head. I tore the old unit out without giving much thought to how it was wired. Not sure it would've helped me anyway had I taken notes. I wired the unit up in a way that "made sense" to me and it blew the fuse. I made "corrections" to my wiring without improvement. (Yes, I understand this likely horrifies anyone that is qualified in electrical work.) I then disconnected the unit from the power and switch and spent an hour on the Internet researching triple switch wiring diagrams and doing a lot of thinking and even some drawing to try and get my head around how this works. Yeah, I know now that the wire/conduit color doesn't always mean what you think it should mean in situations like this. One is hot, others are not, color may be inconsequential. Made my head hurt. I had to map out the wires to switches coming out of my ceiling and get a better understanding for how the unit is wired. If this intimidates you, get help.Finally, I left the night-light bulb out of the unit. I don't need that.Now, the thing puts off a good amount of light with the provided bulbs. The fan is VERY quiet by my standards, though I was used to a clankety, wasp-shooting, 30-year-old unit. Honestly, I am worried I am going to leave the house with it on, it's that quiet to me. Nope, not deaf. The heater is nice. When switched on it takes a few seconds to warm up the element, then the fan starts blowing. The heater fan is quiet and may seem wimpy to you at first, but it puts out plenty of heat.All-in-all, I am very satisfied with this unit. Now, the wife wants one in the other bathroom....

Was going to go with one of the other Panasonics that had a higher CFM rating but then I stumbled across this one with the heater built in. I'm glad I did, and am happy I spent the extra 50 bucks.I did the install and electrical work myself. If you've never done much electrical you should really pay a professional. The junction box, as stated in other reviews, is very cramped in the corner of the unit. If you ran 14ga wire it would be easier to stuff the wires in there but you're really getting close to the limit with a 15amp circuit due to the heater. Remember circuits should only have an 80% continuous load, with 15a that's 1440 watts. With everything running on this bad boy you're drawing 1495 watts. Something like this really should be run on 12ga/20a. I made all the connections up in the attic with the unit upside down and with the switch leads extended through the knockouts farther than their final position. BTW I used metal screw type cable clamps and its not that hard to do if you have the unit upside down and have access to both inside and out. After you make all the connections the tough part is stuffing them into the box and pulling the cables through the knockouts to their final position for clamping. Could have used an extra hand for this. You may need to use some needlenose pliers to stuff each wirenut/wires down into the box. When all was done I flipped the unit back over and rested it into position on top of the drywall and secured the braces. I know the manual shows it being inserted from below.. and maybe I'm missing something, but the way the grille attaches with spring wires it will work either way, you'll just be able to see the cut edge of the drywall if you look closely through the grille. Working on this from below with the fan in it's final position would be a nightmare and leave you with a sore neck.A couple of words of caution that could save you some hassels.. for the main light I used the original circuit from my old fan and lights as I wanted the old vanity lights to work at the same time. For the night light I decided to just hard wire it ON to save myself from running another switch wire. 4W I don't really need it to switched.. If I leave for a long time I can trip the breaker. So I tapped onto another part of the original circuit where it branches off to power the lights in my kitchen. The problem with this is the both of these wires were on the load side of GFCI's and the light and nightlight circuits on the Panasonic share a common neutral... This will not cooperate with GFCIs because the current can return through either neutral and won't match up back at the GFCIs and will trip them. I solved the issue by putting these circuits on the line side of the GFCIs. After 3 hours I spent troublshooting I was cursing Panasonic for saving a few cents by using the shared neutral. There was no reason for those wires to be on the load side of the GFCI's but whoever wired them was just trying to save from using wire nuts and threw them on the load terminals. Can't say I blame them.With the night light hard wired 'on' I only needed 3 switches so I put in a 3 gang box and have one decora for the light, a Lutron countdown timer for the fan, and another regular 20a decora for the heater. I contemplated putting in a leviton countdown timer for the heater, which would be nice, but these seem to have a pretty high failure rate and I'm sure with a high current device attached the rate of failure is even higher. A trusty old switch will do. All said and done this is more expensive than the 3 rocker switch designed for this unit.. but it includes the timer switch for the fan which I think is a must.As for operation the lights are nice and bright. The fan works much better than my old unit; it is quiet, but not silent. Put it this way, with my old fan I could clearly hear it rumbling over the noise from the shower. With the Panasonic I can't hear it while I'm in the shower, but it's easy to hear otherwise. But hey, you know it's working. No fog on the mirror anymore, the heat helps with that too, though. The heater is GREAT. This is so nice as it's getting to be winter time and without it I would hate to turn the water off and start the dryoff process, that's always the coldest part. With the heater on this thing running you don't get cold AT ALL. You can also share a shower with your significant other, and you won't get cold when they're hogging the water. It's like being in a sauna... well, not that hot, but very comfortable. After towel drying I stand under the heater outlet, which conveniently aligns with the middle of my mirror, and that warm air drys you right off. Put it this way, my hair is cut pretty short right now, maybe 3/4 of an inch. I can stand under that blower and run my fingers through my hair for 30 seconds and it's completely dry. LOVE IT!In the end, my advice is to buy this, and do what you have to do to get it installed, and you will thank yourself every time you get out of the shower, and doubly so when it's winter time.update: If you're looking for an LED replacement night light bulb this one is awesome! Almost exact color temperature and just as bright if not brighter.. .36 watts makes hard wiring the night light on even more practical. http://www.amazon.com/G7-Power-Beatty-0-36-Watt-Replacement/dp/B007O0OFFA/ref=cm_cr-mr-title