one fan - two bathrooms - timer switch(es) ?

Oct 18, 2003 7 Replies

I have a house with two bathrooms. One bathroom has a ventillation fan ported to the roof duct. This fan is old and loud. I would like to (maybe) get one "inline fan" (and cancel the old noisy fan; reusing the duct ) connect ducts to both bathrooms. This way I don't need two holes in the roof and hopefully will be quieter, etc.



If there a good way to wire/switch this kind of thing?



It would be great to be able to have a timer in each bathroom that switched on the fan independently. Would this be a three way timer switch?


Thanks for any suggestions


You would use 2 standard timer switches. If either timer is on, the fan would activate. Feed one timer switch, and wire the other timer switch's 2 terminals to the same 2 terminals.

Just as info, that would prob violate code in your area, as it would here. Bite the bullet and buy two Panasonics, and you will never know there is a fan in the bathrooms.

Be sure that the power feed to both switches is on the same circuit!!!!

I wonder is this is code? If everything is wired correctly it should work, but I still wonder about the code.

I have three bathroom fans, one in each bath, with all three connected together to one vent through the roof. The fans have a flap that closes to direct the flow tot he outside. Eventually these fans get dirty, and after a good cleaning with a drop of sewing machine oil they operate quietly for a few more years. You can put a timer switch in each bath, connected in parallel. But I would install a separate fan for each bath.

What's to wonder about? Nowhere in the code does it say a single switched device may have only one switch.

I believe Broan, or maybe it's Nutone, has a line of home ventilation equipment that includes a powerful single, in-line fan and a multitude of T's, Y.s, baffles, and intake/ exhaust diffusers for exactly this kind of situation.

Another way of wiring this is to use 2-pole switches in each bathroom, with one side for the fan, and the other for the light.

(Of course, you feed the fan pole switch only once, and leave the light pole on the existing circuit.)

Depending on the area, its not code.

We just went through this not long ago on a home that had 3 fans, and we were adding 3 more to an addition to the home. The homeowner did NOT want 6 vents out the side or roof of his home, and we could understand that, so we looked into a set of backdraft T's that we could have used, so we thought.. Local code here will NOT allow it, and hes got 6 vents in the eaves now..hidden, but still there. Also, codes changed here, no more plastic or vinyl duct for bathroom vents, or dryers, or kitchen hoods. If its over 14 feet, its got to be hard duct, with no screws, and it cant be over 25 feet total effective length..meaning, if you add a couple of 90s, each adds a TEL of 10 feet each, all you can have in a straight line is 15 feet..wow..

circuit!!!!

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