Ask an Electrician anything...

[AW10]

Gareth1974 said:

I sometimes get an electric shock, usually mild, from the dishwasher and toaster.

I’m not 100% sure the earth on my house is correct. It’s a rod stuck into the ground, an arrangement I’ve not seen at other houses.

While you’re waiting for the sparkie to show up you could do worse than to try one of these in your sockets https://www.toolstation.com/socket-tester/p82826
Not as a replacement for having it checked by a sparkie but to see if something was miswired.

A couple of years ago I hired a lockup and used one of those to discover that the live and neutral were reversed. The elderly home owner was quite startled as she and her late husband had bought the house from new almost 30 years earlier and no-one had ever worked on the electrics. It turned out a number of sockets were affected.

[ruggedscotty]

Kurtville said:

We have an electric shower with an extractor fan which comes on when the light switch is turned on. This is right next to our bedroom and the noise from the fan is really annoying in the night when someone uses the bathroom. The extractor is only needed when the shower is being used. Is it possible to connect the extractor to the double pole switch for the electric shower so that it only comes on when the power for the shower is turned on?

Yes this can be done, any good electrician can do this for you. Id do it slightly differently though and use a relay on the feed for the shower if its a pull cord. Then the fan can be linked to the shower. The shower relay triggering the fan same way as the light switch did...

Be careful as the hot tap when used will generate steam and if that steam is not extracted then you can cause dampness....

[ruggedscotty]

Gareth1974 said:

I sometimes get an electric shock, usually mild, from the dishwasher and toaster.

I’m not 100% sure the earth on my house is correct. It’s a rod stuck into the ground, an arrangement I’ve not seen at other houses.

I can not make much comment on this as dont know the full system. However if you are getting shocks from the toaster and dishwasher you need to get that investigated. no messing. Something iis seriously wrong here. seriously.

Please as a matter of ugency get someone in to check it.

[Kurtville]

ruggedscotty said:

Yes this can be done, any good electrician can do this for you. Id do it slightly differently though and use a relay on the feed for the shower if its a pull cord. Then the fan can be linked to the shower. The shower relay triggering the fan same way as the light switch did...

Be careful as the hot tap when used will generate steam and if that steam is not extracted then you can cause dampness....

Thanks. This sounds like the right option for me. Is the relay an extra safety feature as I assume this is just inserted between the fan and the DP switch for the shower rather than have a direct feed from the DP switch.

[LooneyTunes]

Kurtville said:

ruggedscotty said:

Yes this can be done, any good electrician can do this for you. Id do it slightly differently though and use a relay on the feed for the shower if its a pull cord. Then the fan can be linked to the shower. The shower relay triggering the fan same way as the light switch did...

Be careful as the hot tap when used will generate steam and if that steam is not extracted then you can cause dampness....

Thanks. This sounds like the right option for me. Is the relay an extra safety feature as I assume this is just inserted between the fan and the DP switch for the shower rather than have a direct feed from the DP switch.

If you do this, it’d be worth getting one with a timer and having the relay activate the fan’s switched live but have it run on for a while longer.

Even if you had a high performance fan positioned right over the shower enclosure you’ll still have moisture escaping that will take a bit of time to capture (which will hang around if you get out of the shower, pull the cord and the fan stops immediately).

[ruggedscotty]

Kurtville said:

ruggedscotty said:

Yes this can be done, any good electrician can do this for you. Id do it slightly differently though and use a relay on the feed for the shower if its a pull cord. Then the fan can be linked to the shower. The shower relay triggering the fan same way as the light switch did...

Be careful as the hot tap when used will generate steam and if that steam is not extracted then you can cause dampness....

Thanks. This sounds like the right option for me. Is the relay an extra safety feature as I assume this is just inserted between the fan and the DP switch for the shower rather than have a direct feed from the DP switch.

Nah nothing safety about it, just a way to get the switching linked between the shower and the fan. the timer for the fan working on the 240v from the light. using a relay on the shower feed separates the shower circuit from the lighting circuit. As said a wee bit more to it but an electrician will be able to do it for you.

[Teddy Lop]

Jesus wept. Just fit a quiet fan. There's loads about now as it's building regs due to people switching them off and not using them.

[Rob.]

Gareth1974 said:

I sometimes get an electric shock, usually mild, from the dishwasher and toaster.

I’m not 100% sure the earth on my house is correct. It’s a rod stuck into the ground, an arrangement I’ve not seen at other houses.

We don't have an earth rod, but for ages was getting a mild shock when touching the dishwasher and kitchen tap at the same time. Pulled off the socket where the dishwasher plugs in and the earth was loose. Tightened it up and no more shocks.

[Kurtville]

Teddy Lop said:

Jesus wept. Just fit a quiet fan. There's loads about now as it's building regs due to people switching them off and not using them.

Never found a quiet fan, ever. Jesuuuuus

[ruggedscotty]

jessus laughed...

guy asks for a solution.... to meet his request.... one given... and hey someone pips up with a get a quiet fan...

You know how I did that.... Fan was moved away from the toilet and a duct was added, the fan away from bedroom... But that would be considerably more. Oh and as for a quiet fan.. never found one yet.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

My inline one is damn quiet but it isnt directly bolted to the joists

[DorsetSparky]

ruggedscotty said:

Oh and as for a quiet fan.. never found one yet.

This one from Vent-Axia is very good. Nice to fit, and completely silent. As in, you can't even hear it running. Fitted it on a few jobs now and been pleased with it. Give it a try

Vent Axia Silent Fan

[ruggedscotty]

DorsetSparky said:

ruggedscotty said:

Oh and as for a quiet fan.. never found one yet.

This one from Vent-Axia is very good. Nice to fit, and completely silent. As in, you can't even hear it running. Fitted it on a few jobs now and been pleased with it. Give it a try

Vent Axia Silent Fan

will do. issue is the vibrations, need to see how it goes in use after a ferw months, ive always found the blades pick up what ever and get out of balace, not enough to impare operation. but enough to give it a vibration.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Or this suckz 3 times as hard and is as quiet as that other fan (on its most sucky setting)
https://www.screwfix.com/p/manrose-mf100t-4-axial-...

[DorsetSparky]

ruggedscotty said:

will do. issue is the vibrations, need to see how it goes in use after a ferw months, ive always found the blades pick up what ever and get out of balace, not enough to impare operation. but enough to give it a vibration.

Hmm, interesting. I've not noticed that; I installed one of these at my in-laws so I definitely would've been told if that was an issue! See how you get on with it - I think they're really good.

[LooneyTunes]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Or this suckz 3 times as hard and is as quiet as that other fan (on its most sucky setting)
https://www.screwfix.com/p/manrose-mf100t-4-axial-...

That’s what we have installed whenever a normal sized bathroom gets done in our rentals. They’re very good and often available cheap via Amazon.

For larger bathrooms the TD-Silent range is better still but (aside from the very smallest in the range which is similar size to the manrose one) they are physically large.

Good performance isn’t just about the fan. Also need free flowing inlets, good inlet positioning, solid duct and good routing to get the best out of them. It’s pretty pointless moving lots of air if that’s not the air that contains moisture or odours.

We went from having mirrors steam up every time the shower was used to it never happening by swapping out the crappy vent-axia ceiling mounted fans builder had put in stupid places (just inside the bathroom doors so sucking air out of the bedrooms instead of catching moisture from the shower) for correctly positioned TDs.

[netherfield]

Can you recommend a PIR for 3 x 50w led lights.

Having swapped out 3 x 300w halogens, I've fried 2 PIRs already, on further reading of the leaflet it seems that it can operate 1200w tungsten/halogen
but only 30w Led driver, of course you don't get to see the leaflet until you've bought the thing.

Steinel has been suggested, but vary from £15 to £50 a time and then only mention halogen loading.

In fact have a look at some of these and a lot don't mentioned what LED load they will work with.

Oh for the old MK 'Guardsman' which just did it's job without problem.

[silentbrown]

They're just relays, surely? I wouldn't expect the type of light to matter.

Anyhow, cheap Screwfix LAP ones are 150w rated for LED

[Teddy Lop]

silentbrown said:

They're just relays, surely? I wouldn't expect the type of light to matter.

Anyhow, cheap Screwfix LAP ones are 150w rated for LED

Cheap sihtty stuff can use chip switching instead of relay to save cost, and LED drivers can have very high inrush currents, particularly when using multiple units in parallel, ie 3x 50w is far worse than 1x 150w unit. Could use a separate relay but a decent PIR unit should handle it.

This lot offer spec sheets for everything they flog:

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Security_M...

LAP is the poo-poo.

[silentbrown]

Teddy Lop said:

Cheap sihtty stuff can use chip switching instead of relay to save cost, and LED drivers can have very high inrush currents, particularly when using multiple units in parallel, ie 3x 50w is far worse than 1x 150w unit.

Ah, that makes sense.