For a mains bathroom fan in zone 2 / 3, where should the DP isolator be located?
I have a redundant immersion heater supply running to my loft, via a switched spur in the downstairs kitchen, If this spur is replaced with a 3A fused switched FCU, would this location be acceptable? Fan will be a humidistat type, hence no requirement to connect onto lighting, remote pull cord etc.
thanks DD
Sounds a bodge. A few points: Is the fan only for humidity control? What about 'odours'? Could you say that the switch was "in a readily accessible position" and "identified by position or durable marking to indicate the equipment controlled"? (Electrician's Guide to the Building regs, 4.3) If this arrangement were in someone else's house and you had to maintain the fan, would it be obvious how to isolate it? Remember that part P applies - I doubt that a suitably qualified person would be happy with the arrangement.
Phil
In the bathroom in zone 3 (or beyond the zones), or just outside the bathroom in an obvious place.
IMO, no, even with appropriate labelling. In BS 7671 reg. 131-14-02 requires every motor circuit to have a readily accessible device for switching off, and 462-01-02 says that every device for switching off for mechanical maintenance must be suitably located in a readily accessible position.
Anyone trying to find the switch should be able to do so easily, without having to traipse through the house looking for it in non-obvious places, and without having to rely on the knowledge of one particular person.
I'd still feed it from the lighting circuit via a conventional 3-pole fan isolator (with one pole unused). That gives a bog-standard arrangement that any competent person would recognise and be able to work on safely.
*Bog* standard?
(anyway, moving right along)....
I am completing my cloakroom project, and the fan has been located to a concealed position behind a vented panel - I didn't want the fan itself to be on show.
The panel is removable for servicing the fan. I'm debating whether to fit the fan isolating switch along with some other switches and outlets that are in a cupboard below the panel, or to fit in next to the fan in the void behind the panel.
Since the panel has to be removed to access the fan, it occurs to me that it's reasonable to put the switch there, next to the fan. Actually it simplifies wiring because I don't then need to run the six singles for it in the conduit.
I can't see any regulatory objection for either method, but do you have nay thoughts?
Moving along at a tangent, the OED is interesting on the origins of "bog-standard" which it dates to 1968:
"Ordinary, basic, standard; without extra features or modification; unexceptional or uninspired. Cf. BOX-STANDARD adj.
"[Origin uncertain; perh. an alteration of BOX-STANDARD adj. (although this is first attested later), after BOG n.4
"Differing theories of the origin of bog-standard have been proposed, but none proven. An immediate association with BOG n.1 seems unlikely on semantic grounds. The most commonly held view is that the transition from box to bog resulted from a mishearing or misunderstanding of BOX-STANDARD n.
"Others have suggested a derivation < bog-wheel, former Cambridge slang for a bicycle, though ultimately also related to BOG n.4: see P. Beale Conc. Dict. Slang (1989) 47/2, 48/1."
(Where BOG n.1 is the wet spongy ground meaning and BOG n.4 is the privy meaning.)
Anyway, I digress...
"Nay thoughts" ...? It's preferable I think to be able to isolate the fan before attempting to remove the panel (if only because someone removing it for the first time doesn't know what they're going to find behind it). But will the switch be readily accessible if it's in the cupboard? Difficult to say much more really, without knowledge of all the details. There's no requirement for emergency switching, so both ways ought to be acceptable under BS 7671 if competently executed. Discreet labelling might help - or not, depending on the circumstances...
cf. Ideal-Standard that well known bog maker.
Sorry. To be clearer.....
The fan itself is a Vent Axia standard cloakroom/bathroom fan which used to be on the ceiling about a third of the way across. There is now a cupboard at one end of the room (full width) with a space above it sufficient to accommodate the fan. Rather than having the fan on view, not that it's a large one, I prefer to have a vented panel which I have made to fit the space above the cupboard while being flush with the frame. The fan has been moved such that it is now behind said panel and out of sight while still providing normal ventilation.
For access, I can remove the panel (held with magnetic catches) and then I see the fan in its original form - i.e. cover and no live parts accessible until its cover is removed with a screwdriver. The choice is to locate the isolating switch in the top space near the fan, or in the cupboard below.
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