Guys if you could help I would be eternally grateful.....

withnail69 said:

stop replying to this thread unless you have anything useful to say

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I have something useful to say.

If you don't consider advice to be safe and information to help you learn as useful, then I suggest you go and try another forum where people don't care if you are safe, or know what you are doing, or have any interest in facilitating those states.

I think if I was going to kill myself I would have already. I understand your point but you're making it regularly, repetitively and not just in this thread. Other posters have commented on your comments in this thread so its not just my POV. I've also seen your comments on other threads to people and its practically trolling. Would there even be a forum if every request for help was replied to with... Learn the skills or hire an electrician. I am seriously hoping that these people can help me out of a tight spot here. Cheer my missus up and give me back my evenings. If thats happens I'll be super happy super appreciative and thats great isn't it?

If the photograph shown is the original switch wiring then you can see that two sets of conductors have terminal blocks attached.
The blue/black is your neutral - the yellow/green is your earth. The various browns and the other cable with a sleeve are going to be your live/switch lives.
If the wiring for the light and shower extractor fan has been set up as follows: Power into the switch (Live, neutral and earth) - three core and earth out (grey, brown, black) to the three pole fan isolator - then onto the fan itself. Leaving twin and earth (brown and blue) out to the light.

For the fan to activate with light and continue running for a few minutes after the light is switched off - you need to ensure that you correctly identify each wire.

Looking at the photograph it looks as if the top cable contains black, brown and grey conductors - I would guess they will be connected to the three pole isolator.

Go to the three pole isolator and either photograph or draw the colours of the cable coming into the switch - and which terminal they go to.

If I am correct and it is the three core and earth then you can quickly identify which conductor is which at the old switch. I would imagine that black will be neutral - brown will be live and grey(red sleeve) will be switch live - but please verify.

You say that you have the light working - so one assumes that you have one of the browns in the Common (L) terminal and the other in the L1 terminal - these are your live and switch live conductors.

If the three core and earth at the 3 pole isolator is wired as I suggested then back at the switch the black is already connected to the neutral - put the brown into the Common (L) terminal of the light and the grey(red sleeve) into the L1 terminal.

The fan should now come on with the light and go off a few minutes after the light has been turned off.
If the fan/light operation does not work like this then it is possible that you have the light live and switch live the wrong way around - if so swop only them not the three core wires.

just for clarification here is the config with the light working and fan not...

as I understand it with the change you recommend. There will be nothing in L2...

the change (from the config showed in my terrible picture above)

would be moving the brown thats in L2 into the common (two browns in common and grey and brown in L1)

Thanks for your time and help. I'll report back

withnail69 said:

as I understand it with the change you recommend. There will be nothing in L2...

the change (from the config showed in my terrible picture above)

would be moving the brown thats in L2 into the common (two browns in common and grey and brown in L1)

Thanks for your time and help. I'll report back

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Yes that's correct. Follow riveralt's instructions, and you should be back up and running in no time.

You should not have any wires connected to L2. Your bathroom light just uses common and L1.

I'd go with riveralt's assessment, it's the most likely wiring setup I can think of.

IF it is wired like that, then putting all three browns into C terminal, and grey into L1 will mean that the lights will be "always on" and the fan will start when the switch is on and go off after the timer expires with the switch off. That establishes the fan wiring, and all that's left is to determine which brown (of the T&Es) is the light and which is the feed.

Leave the brown of the three core in C, and move one of the other browns to L1 alongside the grey wire. If the fan comes on and off with the switch (no run-on) then the browns are the wrong way round - the permanent live to the fan is turning off with the light.
If that si the case, then swap the two browns from the T&Es round and it should work.

Probably a bit late now to talk about safe isolation procedures, but always make sure the power is turned off and cannot be turned back on while you are working on the circuit. I'm assuming that a lockout device to fit your CU (to prevent the circuit being turned back on) and a proper voltage detector (to verify that the circuit is dead) aren't in your toolbox.

The latter assumption means that you should be advising him to not do electrical work.

ban-all-sheds said:

The latter assumption means that you should be advising him to not do electrical work.

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C'mon B-A-S. As per the other thread, the OP is continuing with this whether you, I or everyone else think that's advisable.
He's trying to learn - he's asking questions, and he's certainly confirmed that, in hindsight, he maybe would not have ended up in this position with a little planning (taking pics of the original setup would have been a good fallback).

But this is just yet another example of you banging up the same message; "you don't have the knowledge - just stop".
You've said that a few times on this thread and the OP is carrying on.

SO... how about trying to understand his problem and using your considerable knowledge to help him achieve what he's trying to do, as safely as possible (assuming, as should become clear, that he's looking to try to fix this himself).

You know, and we all know, and the OP knows, that this is not rocket-science; we don't need to hide the advice from him.

ban-all-sheds said:

Keep on playing - there is still time.

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He wants to: you keep trying to stop him.

In the switch box, isn't the grey the neutral?

Thanks to all esp riveralt, simon and RF lighting... My sparky friend came round last night and checked it out. He did the whole thing live which was un-nerving for me but when you know what you are doing its like watching someone very decent with chopsticks...Well chopsticks, electrical screwdriver and the current meter (whatever it is that lights up next to a live wire). It was a tiny bit reassuring that he was a bit stumped by the fan. Made me feel slightly less of a total idiot. He looked at the fan switch (pretty odd apparantly... 2x L1 and 2 x L2). The config suggested by RF is what we settled on. Light on and fan on with switch in correct position (but no timer) According to him this should have been working but something is up. So fan going off as soon as light is off. I'm happy with that. My missus says there was about a 20 min delay on fan after light went out before. But we can easily live without that. Thanks again for those that took the time to read and offer help. I work in I.T so understand how frustrating it is trying to explain things to people who don't understand the terminology. PS:- I didn't take pics cause I didn't know I'd ever have to move back from dimmer to standard switch. Steep learning curve!

Nice one! Good news!

No doubt Ban is having a coronary about the guy working live, but hey-ho!

Possible the timer has gone up the creek?

If the fan now has no overrun could the switched live and permanent live to the fan be the wrong way around?