Old bathroom - customer wants a fan fitted

[Octopus]

Been to look at a possible job today and its one of the usual "difficult" ones.

Very old installation, rewireable fuses, not a RCD in sight, and the customer has bought a humidstat fan.

The location for the fan would be outside zone 2 - as would the 3 pole isolation switch.

The only way to "feed" the fan would be to add a spur off the ring and fit a RCD spur.

The customer doesn't have much money to spend and thus any suggestion about replacing their CU would not go down well.

Would it be ok to install the fan, via the RCD spur and comment on "old" aspects of the installation? (I would test the bonding in the bathroom as part of my tests)

Suggestions please!

 

[nickblake]

why not use the RCD spur for the lighting circuit and RCD the lighting circuit in the bathroom this way the whole circuit is protected not just the fan ,and then recommend an upgrade , grants are available for this type of work have a look at the ESC switched on guide

 

[DurhamSparky]

fit the RCD spur or if the customer can not afford that fit the fan and NOTE the CERTIFICATE to mention deviation

 

[malcolmsanford]

I can only advise that when you start filling in departures on a EIC it's best to be certain that there are no repercussions. You can only depart from the Regs under reguations 120.3 and 120.4. As this is not new materials or inventions then it's reg 120.3 being invoked.

It's the last sentance that is the key IMO " The resulting degree of safety of the installation shall not be less than that obtained by compliance with the regulations." For me that is saying that your departure from the regs should be giving the same protection as the appropriate regulation which in this case is 701.411.3.3.

Those rewireable fuses will not be giving you the same protection as the RCD. For me it all boils down to the chance of you standing in a court of law and trying to justify why you never applied the regs and decided to make that departure. It's not worth it as far as I would be concerned.

The best way was Nickiblake find the feed going into the lighting circuit of the bathroom and fit a RCD spur so that the lights are then covered as well.

 

[miner69er]

personally guys i'd probably put the rcd spur right next to the fuse box and protect the whole lighting circuit, not just a portion of the circuit by putting it near the bathroom.
point 1: every person that goes to the fuse box can see there is an rcd. i can't tell you the number of times i do a PIR and have to go hunting for an rcd spur because it's in the loft or somewhere equally stupid causing IR to be 0.0 on l and n.
point 2: its usually easier to fit by the fuse box, just pull out the lighting cable and put in spur then fit new cable into c/u (you can even leave the 13amp fuse in place as the begining of the circuit is protected with a 5 amp fuse).
point 3: you've just added protection to the whole lighting circuit, giving customer better protection.
everyone's a winner.....

 

[malcolmsanford]

personally guys i'd probably put the rcd spur right next to the fuse box and protect the whole lighting circuit, not just a portion of the circuit by putting it near the bathroom.
point 1: every person that goes to the fuse box can see there is an rcd. i can't tell you the number of times i do a PIR and have to go hunting for an rcd spur because it's in the loft or somewhere equally stupid causing IR to be 0.0 on l and n.
point 2: its usually easier to fit by the fuse box, just pull out the lighting cable and put in spur then fit new cable into c/u (you can even leave the 13amp fuse in place as the begining of the circuit is protected with a 5 amp fuse).
point 3: you've just added protection to the whole lighting circuit, giving customer better protection.
everyone's a winner.....

Good point about protecting the whole circuit would agree with that. Though you may need to fit a 2nd FCU for the fan as local isolation.