I have a recommendation for whole-house fans, and that is to go with the ones made by Triangle Engineering of Arkansas (made in the USA!). These things move more air than any other brand. As an example: the 36" belt-drive model sold at Lowes & Home Depot moves 6,900 CFM on its highest speed. The 36" one that Triangle makes moves 10,600 CFM. I just put one of these in last week and am so taken with it that I'm evangelizing for Triangle now. These things are much higher quality than the other brands too -- these are made with very heavy-gauge solid welded steel (as opposed to the thin, flimsy metal - often aluminum - that other brands use). They use a very solid motor made by Emerson, the best of the top three motor-making companies (the other two being Fasco and A.O. Smith). They come pre-framed on a wood frame for installation, AND they have sponge-rubber noise-dampening material between the fan and the frame, so they are much quieter than the other brands. Also, Triangle holds a patent on an automatic belt-tensioning system these things use, so you don't have to worry about getting the tension right when you install the fan (or in the years thereafter as the belt loosens up). Also, they come in more sizes than the other companies -- from 24" all the way up to 48" blade diameter (which moves a ridiculously whopping amount of air; no one else makes one that big). They're sold online at Southern Tool amongst other places that ship nationwide, so they're available wherever you live. Also, Triangle re-brands some of these as a private label for Dayton, which is the "store brand" of Grainger - so if you have a Grainger store near you (check your phone book or their website), you can buy one there. I will say this, though - Grainger/Dayton makes their own shutters, and those shutters are much better than the one Triangle makes. Triangle makes great fans, but crappy shutters. Luckily, they're sold separately -- so buy a Triangle fan and Dayton shutters; money can't buy better products. They also re-brand some for a company out in San Francisco called "Fanman" (a/k/a "Delta Breeze"). A word to the wise -- these fans move a lot of air, so make sure to install at least the recommended minimum amount of attic exhaust space (gable vents, soffit vents, roof vents, some combination thereof, whatever works for you) - if you don't have enough, the fan will operate at reduced capacity, and there will be a backpressure which will cause the shutters to rattle when the fan is in operation (any time you hear whole-house fan shutters rattling, you know there isn't enough exhaust space). Oh, and one other thing -- only buy a belt-drive whole-house fan, don't EVER buy a direct-drive model...the direct-drive models are at least five times louder, they sound like standing on an airport runway next to an old prop plane getting ready to take off. Several of the dedicated whole-house fan installing companies have chosen to use Triangle fans; that should tell you something. These companies want satisfied customers, so they use Triangle and only Triangle. Refer to http://www.trianglefans.com/wholehouse.html for more info Here is a link that might be useful: Triangle whole-house fans

What you are after is a fan rated pan box. The pan box is 1/2 inch deep and after cutting out the sheetrock it would be flush with the ceiling. Enter "fan rated pan box" in a search engine if you need more info. The local big boxes here stock them (or did a couple weeks ago)

I have had two Broan/Nutone heater/vent/light/nightlight units since 2005. The first one had the heater burn out, which hubby and the contractor who was here for something else replaced. Then the light on it went POP and flamed out, so we decided to replace the whole thing because DH, who was in the bathroom at the time, said that sparks flew. When the contractor was back for something else again, I gave him the new unit (same model because we had blown-in insulation and did not want him crawling around in the attic to change the larger vent pipe that we needed to downsize if we switched to Panasonic) and he installed the different parts into the old housing because it was easier and the big metal boxes were the same. The heater on this one has now quit working. Now I will admit that we sometimes forgot and left the heater running for hours. The heater burning out was likely our fault. So I second (third?) the call for putting the heater on a timer. We are planning a remodel of this room and so the old aluminum slider window is still not replaced. We can't use window film in the winter anymore because we need to open this window to get the attention of our elderly dog when he gets "lost" in the yard and is barking during late-night potty breaks. So it is darn cold in this bathroom sometimes! We need something for additional heat. I don't know if I will go for the radiant light bulbs (remember the red heater bulbs?) or electric cove heating or just electric -in-floor heating. I used electric cove heating in my father-in-law's room when he was an invalid, and it worked very well giving his room the extra few degrees he needed. Here is a link: Comfort Cove We just had a thermostat in his room to run the cove heater, and it kept his room toasty. My DH reminded me the other day that when you get out of the shower wet, the heater fan blowing on you does make you feel cold. Its heat is not nearly as warm as you are after the shower. The cove heat is silent, another plus. I bet it will help dry and warm the towels hanging across from it, too. I had forgotten about the Comfort Cove heater because we had to disconnect it back in 2010 when we remodeled the kitchen. We ran out of circuits and I had to steal the Comfort Cover circuit for the stove top's down draft fan! I need to get a new service panel.

I just bought 2 nutone heat, vent light fans for $195 each at Lowes. nice product, 2 sones (very quite) with direction adjustable heat vent in cover. about 2" larger than existing bath fans. perfect imo, to just cut the hole a bit larger. I also installed daylight cfl bulbs. used hardcast brand mastic tape to seal housing to cut in sheetrock before installing cover. also used the mastic tape to install the damper (and penny) to the housing of the bath fan, and the venting to the damper. took about an hour per bath fan. not my first rodeo. I also like panasonic whisper quite fans, but twice the price of the nutone. never liked nutone before, but saw mostly elcheepo bath fans that sounded like a 747 taking off. these were quite nice, and the low sones rating means that they will be used. I recommend running the fan for half an hour after shower. best of luck.