Fans

[Phaze]

I've just come across an interesting piece in the Spark magazine regarding the installation of your average bathroom fan. Now we are all aware of the need for triple pole isolation in the circuit on fans with a timed overrun. The interesting part is most manufacturers state that their fans should be protected with a 3Amp fuse, or they will not accept responsibility for damage resulting from a faulty unit. Now this puts us in a predicament as most are wired off the bathroom lighting circuit which is invariably protected with a 6Amp breaker at the board. This leaves us with no choice but to fuse the bathroom lighting circuit down before the split to 3 core, as the permanent and switched lives cannot be fused seperately, so where are we supposed to squeeze this extra piece of equipment in? The alternative being a 3Amp breaker at the board, easy enough on a new build, just a seperate circuit for bathroom lighting. Not so clever on an existing installation, as many phone calls would follow for overload trips!

Your thoughts?

 

[Andy™]

some manufacturers do state ' ... or lighting circuit'.

and a quick search will find many similar threads

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

I've just come across an interesting piece in the Spark magazine regarding the installation of your average bathroom fan. Now we are all aware of the need for triple pole isolation in the circuit on fans with a timed overrun. The interesting part is most manufacturers state that their fans should be protected with a 3Amp fuse, or they will not accept responsibility for damage resulting from a faulty unit. Now this puts us in a predicament as most are wired off the bathroom lighting circuit which is invariably protected with a 6Amp breaker at the board. This leaves us with no choice but to fuse the bathroom lighting circuit down before the split to 3 core, as the permanent and switched lives cannot be fused seperately, so where are we supposed to squeeze this extra piece of equipment in? The alternative being a 3Amp breaker at the board, easy enough on a new build, just a seperate circuit for bathroom lighting. Not so clever on an existing installation, as many phone calls would follow for overload trips!

Your thoughts?

Erm,..

just follow manufactures instructions as per regs..!

fan isso & fuse...??

if needed.. easy..

 

[Evans Electric]

According to the aformentioned article  , someone makes a combined fuse/isolator .     I always used to fit just a spur unit controlling the lights and fan but one of the assessors wasn't at all happy with the lights going off and saying you can't clean the fan in the dark .  

          I just thought, clean it in daylight but what do I know?      So I changed to 3 pole switches.   

 

[wozz]

always fitted a spur and isolator, or a fan that doesnt require a 3A fuse.

But now theres this http://www.scolmore.com/article.php?id=51&headline=Protection_for_Ventilation_Equipment

Thinking about it how does this actually fuse both lives?

Cleaning the fan in the dark, whatever next a isolator next to each downlight so the lamp can be changed with all the others on?

 

[Andy™]

always fitted a spur and isolator, or a fan that doesnt require a 3A fuse.

But now theres this http://www.scolmore.com/article.php?id=51&headline=Protection_for_Ventilation_Equipment

Thinking about it how does this actually fuse both lives?

Cleaning the fan in the dark, whatever next a isolator next to each downlight so the lamp can be changed with all the others on?

hopefully it doesnt fuse the neutral...

 

[Evans Electric]

Wonder how many will be fusing the feed to the lights and fan ?

I've come across loads of fans with spurs that just break the L & N to the fan    or  the trigger wire and N .  So either way you're in for a shock . 

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I have seen spurs used with the N jointed straight through and the L & SW/L through the spur (Feed fused)