Putting fan in shower area

[headwrap]

This is my last question about the shower I promise. I'm replacing the huge old fashion fan with a neat one. The wires comes out 6 in from the hole and were covered by the old fan. Should the wires be recessed into the plaster to the new fan and presumably the tiles are cut to fit round the fan not under the lip of it? I can't see any other way of doing it, but just checking.

 

[gcol]

If your fan is in a position were it can be touched whilst standing in the bath/shower then it needs to be a low voltage fan (12V). You would need to remove those wires and connect them to a 12V transformer, then run a low voltage cable to the fan.
If you can't touch the fan then you should be ok with a 240V one.
In both instances, you would bury the cables and leave as small a hole as possible in the tiles for them to poke through from. You would need to line up the protruding wires with a suitable place on the fan base. You do not tile around the fan, the fan is to be fitted to the surface of the tiles.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

1) Being able to touch it is not the test - you could easily touch something above Zone 1, or from within a bath something in Zone 2.

2) There is no requirement for fans in Zone 1 or Zone 2 to be ELV, provided they are IPx4 and the manufacturer says that they are suitable for installation in the Zone. If you install a LV fan you should RCD protect it.

3) The IEC definitions of voltage bands are:

• Extra Low Voltage: AC below 50V and DC below 120V
• Low Voltage: 50 - 1000V AC or 120 - 1500V DC
• Medium voltage: 1kV - 35kV
• High voltage: 35kV - 230kV
• Extra-high voltage: >230kV

This is not some pedantic technical point - if you start getting involved in doing your own electrical work, and start learning about regulations etc you'll come across references to "Low voltage", and it'll be no good you thinking that that means 12V...

 

[gcol]

Ok point made, "Extra" low voltage then. I did add the voltage so that should have given you a clue.
For what it's worth, it's not just me that calls extra low voltage fans "low voltage" http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/xpelair-premier-lvcf20-low-1946-16396 although I'll concede, the details do make mention of extra low voltage.

 

[headwrap]

many thanks and grateful for help especially over Christmas. bw Susan

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Ok point made, "Extra" low voltage then. I did add the voltage so that should have given you a clue.

I know - and it was the equating of "low voltage" and "12V" that I was correcting..

For what it's worth, it's not just me that calls extra low voltage fans "low voltage"

Indeed not - it's a widespread and understandable mistake, but the fact that the law uses the terms properly means that people should be aware of their proper meanings.

 

[xerxes]

I used to work with an engineer who referred to anything below 132kV as 'low voltage'. His colleagues found this rather confusing.