Fusing of extractor fans.

[Lofty]

Hi All,
Just had our annual NICEIC inspection and all went OK we passed, !! anyway during the conversation it came up that there had been an instance of a 4" fan going up in flames. At the court hearing it came down to either the contractor was at fault or was it the fan. The manufacturers of the fan said that it was the contractor as he had not followed the installation instructions, and in particular that the fan was to be fused at 3A. The NIC not happy with a 3 pole isolation are now saying, nationally as far as we know, that both the live and switched live are to be fused at 3A AFTER the 3 pole swith to prevent this happening again. So from that a couple of questions (a) how best to fuse both live cables and (b) anyone else heard this from the NIC or for that matter any other govening body.
The NIC's answer is to fit in line fuseholders in a deeper box and fuse at the isolation switch, try that in a pullcord !!.

Cheers,

 

[pennywise]

or just put the lights in the bathroom on a fused spur with a 3 amp fuse, use a dual box with a fused spur and fan isolator

 

[Amp David]

Always wondered why the switch live was never required to be fused. In the last 3 months, think i've done as pennywise says and have put the bathroom lights on its own 3 amp spur. Luckily i've be able to mount the spur alongside the CU out of sight.

 

[Lofty]

Hi Guys,
That's the sort of thinking that we were coming up with as well, I mean in-line fuseholders is that the best that the NIC could come up with ?. well worth the accreditation fee .

So neither of you guys have been 'officially' told this then by the NIC ?.

Cheers,
Lofty

 

[pennywise]

I always follow manufacturers instructions....... never been picked up on it at inspection time, infact I have to point it out to the inspector

 

[nickblake]

This i brought up a while ago heard about the case spark got fined 34k as a guy died in the fire , in my days of working for a well know card retailer we had a fire in in a shop in the arndale centre this was caused by the fan , also i have come across several fires caused by extract fans , so i do exactly what penny wise has said and install the lights in the bathroom on a fused spur , so your loop ins and outs go into the supply of the fused spure and the load goes to the lights , then wire as normal using the fan isolator , i always put in a 2 amp fuse to just to be on the safe side .

 

[Judgeshred39]

I have had this discussion with many sparks in the wholesaler of a nasty free coffee from there dispenser! My NIC inspector did not bring this up on my assessment this year so i did not dare mention it to him but my i know of a few people locally that have recently been told this. As the other chaps have said, fused spur for the bathroom protected by 3 amp for now until they bring out a special dual switch fused connection unit...hmmm may contact my business advisor now and get inventing these!hehe. However i have rang rang manrose technical help line, they stated that there fans have a thermal cut out fuse in all there units so the 3amp fusing down does not apply to there units.

Would love to hear of any other ways around this,

Cheers,
Dan

 

[pennywise]

These babies inside the fan or in the back of a deep fan isolator box.

In-Line Fuseholder - Rating up to 10A 50V (up to 250V) by Bulgin Components

Had a call out to a large nursing home in hammersmith a couple of years back, one fan took out three floors with smoke damage, and another three floors where the fire brigade smashed all the floors to pieces. The upshot was fire stop barriers being installed in a all 140 nursing homes up and down the country and inline fuse carriers on the live and switch lines, got to love nursing homes everything basically running 24hrs a day

 

[nickblake]

Again as penny wise has said read the manufacturuers instructions and technical info as youll see this if they have thermal overload protection then there will be no need for additional fusing ,but alot of manufacturers dont so fuse and your covered

 

[Lofty]

Hi Guys,
many thanks for the feedback ref the NIC. seems that they are highlighting this a bit.
I too would like to hear of any other ways round this 'problem'. Good info though on the Manrose fans, would have thought that this would be standard for all decent manufacturers.

Cheers,
Lofty.