Fan and light operating switch

[Nick_t]

My bathroom extraction fan and light operate from a single wall mounted switch which is annoying as it means you cant have the fan on without the light. The fan is installed with a fan isolater switch (mounted hight above the bathroom door) so I can isolate the fan and only operate the light which is fine but I want to be able to operate the fan and light independantly using a 2 gang switch.

The current wiring configuration is;

Single switch with all blue wires fixed together is a piece of terminal block. brown wires (from fan and light) fixed into switch in L1 and L2.

Would it work if I were to separate the brown wires so that I use a 2 gang switch and put the brown from the fan in one side of the switch (L1 and L2) and the brown from the light in the other side of the switch (L1 and L2). This sounds feasible but would it work?
Any advice would be very helpful.

Nick

 

[Taylortwocities]

From your description it sounds like you have the live feed and neutral coming into the switch and the live from the switch then going to the light and then from the light on to the fan.

I do not think that you have separate wires for the lights and the fan coming to the switch. If you did there would be three two core cables:

Feed, fan and lights.

To achieve what you wan to do you are going to have to run a separate cable from the fan back to the switch.

 

[jj4091]

And disconnect the one from the light to the fan

 

[Nick_t]

Thanks very much.

Nick

 

[Steve]

Nick, consider will you ever use the fan as its on its own switch? They are wired to lights so you always use them. Having them switched seperately, you may forget it is even there.

 

[TicklyT]

How about using a (suitably IP rated) PIR sensor to switch just the fan?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Because he only wants the fan to come operate on Thursdays. With the PIR it will operate every time the cat walks in.

 

[securespark]

They are wired to lights so you always use them.

You don't always turn the light on to use the room...

 

[ebee]

I assume that the fan & light are seperate and not one of those "showerlight" thingys?
The reason I mention it is that for such the manufacturers state the light should not operate without the fan (heat dissapation comes to mind)

 

[Nick_t]

Thanks for all the comments.

I do want to use them separately. If I go for a shower in the day light I only want the fan . If I go to the toilet in the night I only want the light. This is new house - the way the lights/fan operate are not in line with energy saving principles.


Nick

 

[ebee]

That`s OK providing the shower and light are seperate and not as a combined "showerlite" thingy otherwise they fan MUST operate when the light does