Extractor fan

[nick50000]

Hi everyone,

We bought a place a couple of years ago. It was previously renovated by the previous owners but is a 1930s property. The extractor fan in the bathroom was installed under the previous owners. It's noisy and doesn't seem to do a great job of extracting. I'm considering getting it replaced. I isolated the supply to the whole house this morning to take a look.

My question is whether replacing it with a newer model with a timer from Vent Axia will be difficult, and if there is anything that appears strange in the set up today that would need to be correct. Trying to figure out if I should buy a basic fan without timer or a timer fan.

Set up today appears to be:
- Current fan (Greenwood Airvac in chrome) does not have an overrun timer
- LIght switch outside the bathroom door controls both the light and the fan
- There is also a separate isolator switch for the fan, located above the light switch. Switching this to Off, will turn the fan off, even if the light is ON.
- If light switch appears to be before the isolator in the circuit. If the fan switch is ON (not isolated) and the light is off, the fan will not run.

When I took the cover off, the fan appears to have two live (1 live, 1 switched live?), 1 neutral and an earth connection.

What I'm not clear about:
- Will the current light switch / isolator combination be OK for a timer fan? I assume so, as there appears to be a switched live, but this current set up looks different to the sets up on the UHM videos on this topic
- Is this current set up earthed? I would have thought given current fan is only a 2-3 years old, that it would be double insulated and not be earthed, but looks like it is. If the new fan is double insulated, what is the best way of dealing with the earth wire?

Thanks!

existing fan

IMG_1267_B.jpg (53.8 KiB) Viewed 1279 times

[Someone-Else]

First things first.

The set up you have and the way it works is correct. The isolator is there solely to isolate the fan.

The fan you have has a Potentiometer on it (Like a volume knob, its the round thing just above the earth connections, NOT the big black capacitor almost on the edge) what happens if you adjust it? (It looks like its sitting in its centre position)

I would guess the timer on your current fan may have failed (Pending what happens after you adjust it)
If this is the case it should be a straight swap. (Depending on what fan you choose to get)

You could also check outside, to see if the fan's vent is blocked or full of fluff etc.