Discuss Bathroom extractor fan with continuous power in the Electrical Wiring, Theories and Regulations area at ElectriciansForums.net

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jhalme

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This must be bread and butter stuff for any qualified electrician which I'm not so please bear with me.

I've just installed a Nuaire extractor fan in the bathroom. It has continuous trickle mode plus up to 30 minutes run on timer but I'm unable to take advantage of these because the fan is behind a pull switch that is also connected to the lights in the bathroom so there's no power going to the fan when the light is off. I had to connect live to both live (L) and switch live (SL) in the fan as I don't have SL separately.

If I wanted to feed continuous current to the fan, would I have to get the entire bathroom rewired? Presumably this is a fairly straightforward task to any qualified electrician and wouldn't cost too much to complete?
 
Welcome to the forum.
Is there not a permanent live and neutral at the light you could tap off rather than the switch live?

Is the bathroom light circuit protected by a RCD?
 
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This must be bread and butter stuff for any qualified electrician which I'm not so please bear with me.

I've just installed a Nuaire extractor fan in the bathroom. It has continuous trickle mode plus up to 30 minutes run on timer but I'm unable to take advantage of these because the fan is behind a pull switch that is also connected to the lights in the bathroom so there's no power going to the fan when the light is off. I had to connect live to both live (L) and switch live (SL) in the fan as I don't have SL separately.

If I wanted to feed continuous current to the fan, would I have to get the entire bathroom rewired? Presumably this is a fairly straightforward task to any qualified electrician and wouldn't cost too much to complete?
U know you will probably think this is an old cliché Mate, your best bet is to pay to get the job done properly by a competent Electrician, rather than getting advice from someone who hasn't actually seen what is involved.
 
Welcome to the forum.
Is there not a permanent live and neutral at the light you could tap off rather than the switch live?
Good question. I'm not there to check at the moment but I presumed if the pull switch controls both light and fan, there's no permanent live or neutral going to the light (or fan).

However based on your comment maybe the light is getting permanent live and neutral, and the pull switch controls what goes to the fan - there's live, neutral and earth wiring only so it would need switch live too so that there's continuous power plus boost when the cord is pulled.
 
U know you will probably think this is an old cliché Mate, your best bet is to pay to get the job done properly by a competent Electrician, rather than getting advice from someone who hasn't actually seen what is involved.
Sure. I will book an electrician but I wanted to understand what the actual task is first.
 
It all depends on how the light is wired up mate.
Sometimes lights have a permanent live, switch live and neutral at them. If the fan is wired to the switch live then it will only come on then the switch is activated.

I also added to my post above with this question. Is the bathroom light circuit protected by a RCD?
 
Sure. I will book an electrician but I wanted to understand what the actual task is first.
Like I intimated, it's rather a difficult question without seeing what has actually been done in the first place, but from experience it shouldn't be to much of a job to rectify. Famous last words, no should be fairly painless. And like Spoon said the circuit will require RCD protection, as it is in a room that contains a Bath.
 
It all depends on how the light is wired up mate.
Sometimes lights have a permanent live, switch live and neutral at them. If the fan is wired to the switch live then it will only come on then the switch is activated.

I also added to my post above with this question. Is the bathroom light circuit protected by a RCD?
There's an MK fuse box with dual RCD. Based on this I think it's best I book someone to sort it out instead of fumbling with my questions.
 
Hi - it may be that another cable is needed between the switch and your new fan to get L, sL, N and E. As Pete has said, not a big job at all but it does depend on access to the ceiling space. I see you’ve already got an RCD on the circuit, so that’s one less thing :) .
 
There's an MK fuse box with dual RCD. Based on this I think it's best I book someone to sort it out instead of fumbling with my questions.
Then by the looks of things you will already have RCD protection, you are right get a Sparky in to sort it for you, you know it's the right thing to do, good luck.
 
Hi - it may be that another cable is needed between the switch and your new fan to get L, sL, N and E. As Pete has said, not a big job at all but it does depend on access to the ceiling space. I see you’ve already got an RCD on the circuit, so that’s one less thing :) .
Access is a hole in the ceiling where the light is, and there's an empty cavity space behind the fan. Presumably the new cable could be pulled through using the existing cable without sL. :)
 

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