Oh no! Not another Fan / Dimmer question! (slight twist).

Hi,


Been reading the forums for a while, learned lots, be gentle with me.
I've had a trawl but can't see anything already posted, please don't flame me if it has been discussed in the past.

I have a bathroom fan with timer and LV lights on one switch (switch located outside bathroom). The fan has a live feed (but no 3 pole isolator or FCU, yet!) from the lighting circuit. The switched live is connected to the wall switch, and all is fine.

However, I've gone and changed the switch for a dimmer. The dimmer is a Lutron Telume TIR-ELV500 (good price on Ebay) and the fan is an Addvent 100 IDT (std 4" job). Everything seems to be working just great.
The fan comes on when the lights are switched on (even on the lowest setting), and it stays on fine. When the lights are switched off, it over-runs on the timer as it should and then switches off. So everything seems OK.

But I'm still worried. I'm not sure that sending a reduced voltage to the SL on the fan is harming the timer. I've checked with Lutron, and they were kind of OK about it, and I rang Addvent but their guy didn't really seem to have much knowledge. I needed to explain twice that I wasn't dimming the live feed, only the switched live to the timer. He was really not sure whether this would be a problem.

Can anyone advise please?

Thanks.

it depends if the fan actually takes any current from the switched live, or if it just uses it for a relay to turn on the permenant live.

If its just switching a relay in the fan, then it may operate on any voltage, and just uses the switch for a "signal" to switch the fan on. If it works fine now, i would leave it, and we can all go away safe in the knowledge that timed-overrun fans work on dimmers!

Cheers Crafty.

I'm not sure if it's a relay or some sort of solid-state voodoo thing. No idea if SL draws current either, but I could check.

Been searching for info, but not turning much up. Don't s'pose any learned ones fancy chipping in with your 2 penneth worth do you?

Advice is always gratefully received.

1) I find it hard to believe that nobody at Advent knows.

2)

crafty1289 said:

it depends if the fan actually takes any current from the switched live, or if it just uses it for a relay to turn on the permenant live.

Click to expand...

I've wondered that, but I would have thought you could learn a lot by disconnecting the permanent live, and seeing if the fan then works in non-timed mode, or doesn't work at all.

3)

If its just switching a relay in the fan, then it may operate on any voltage, and just uses the switch for a "signal" to switch the fan on. If it works fine now, i would leave it, and we can all go away safe in the knowledge that timed-overrun fans work on dimmers!

Click to expand...

Even if this one did, is there any guarantee that they all would?

Just come on to this forum and about to submit this /exact/ same post as this is exactly what I want to do in my bathroom (which is in the planning stage).

I am still trying to figure whether to ask my spark to fit a dimmer pull cord to the new ceiling or to fit a dimmer light switch outside the room (and associated disruption to landing wallpaper).

Does anyone have any experience with the following pull-cord dimmer and fan? Do you think the timer would work with the dimmed output?

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_In...ng_Accessories~Dimmers_All/Dimpull/index.html
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SLTD160T.html

Thanks for any help

p.s. are there any wall dimmers with a both a dimmed output for connecting to lights and a non-dimmed switchhed out put for connecting to a fan?

(i.e. controlled by the same rotary knob)

there used to be some with a switch and a thumb wheel, you could either wire thru the dimmer or just the switch, dont know if they are still avaliable tho

Done a bit more fact finding, but don't have any more facts! The thing is still rigged up and still working, and I'm still not convinced it's OK. Perhaps I should look at other options such as humidity control or PIR?

I have had this set up in my bathroom for a number of years and find it quite usefull. With the dimmer turned up full lights and fan operate as normal, and runs on after lights turned off With the dimmer turned low the lights come on (dimmed) but the fan will not operate, obviously not enough current on the switch wire to operate the fan. Because we have small kids in the house using the loo in the middle of the night, with the lights dimmed down the fan does not operate and wake the rest of the house up. I have installed a similar setup in a friends house with a differant fan model but with the same results.