Delta Breez Radiance RAD80-DGL Designer Grille with Heater

The RAD80-DGL is the designer grille for the BreezRadiance 80 CFM fan/heater, offered as an alternative to the standard grille on that series. It carries the 1300 watt heating element behind the face, so it is the grille and heater assembly rather than a plain plastic cover. You still need a BreezRadiance 80 CFM housing for it to go into.

The RAD80-DGL measures 16-13/16 x 10-11/16 x 5-1/2 inches. The 10-11/16 inch figure clears a standard 16 inch on center joist bay, which gives about 14-1/2 inches between framing, but the 5-1/2 inch depth is the number to check first: you need that much clear height above the ceiling, so a 2x6 joist bay is tight and a 2x8 or deeper bay is what you want. In a finished ceiling with limited plenum, measure before you cut.

Only if the existing fan is a BreezRadiance 80 CFM unit. The designer grille is the alternative face for that series, so it swaps for the standard BreezRadiance 80 grille. It is not a universal grille and will not retrofit a Delta Breez Slim, Signature, or any other maker's housing.

80 CFM covers a bathroom up to roughly 80 square feet on the standard one CFM per square foot rule for bathrooms of 100 square feet or less. A five by eight or six by eight bath is comfortably inside that. Larger baths, or ones with an enclosed shower or a jetted tub in a separate compartment, want more air than the BreezRadiance 80 moves, and you should either step up in CFM or add a second exhaust point.

1.5 sones. That is quiet enough for a hotel guest bath or a multi-family unit where the fan sits over the tub and noise complaints travel, and it is well under the 3.0 sone ceiling most jurisdictions and green building programs look for on a continuously usable bath fan. Note the sone rating is for the fan; running the heater adds the sound of moving heated air.

The fan and the 1300 watt heater are separately controllable, so run the feed to a two or three gang box and switch them independently: fan, heater, and light if the room has one. Do not put the heater on a standard dimmer or a variable speed fan control. At 11 amps the heater leg needs full rated conductors back to the panel, not the light wiring. A timer on the heater is common in commercial and multi-family work so it cannot be left running.

Delta publishes a submittal sheet for the RAD80-DGL covering the installation instructions and the rated performance data, hosted at zensupply.com/content/pdf/delta-breez/RAD80-DGL_Submittal_Sheet_e.pdf. That is the document to attach when a spec or an inspector wants the airflow, sound, and electrical ratings in writing.