Advice from our resident electricians please!

Super_Eddie_Youds

Hi all, not a regular poster but do so occasionally. Am always struck by the bredth of knowledge on here though so thought I'd ask for some advice. Professional if possible but open to all!

I want to put an extractor fan in my bathroom, but the half jobbers that owned the place before me only ran the whole bathroom electrics off a spur rather than the mains. As the bathroom used to be separate toilet and bathroom, we have no idea where the junction box is. So we've been told we can only have one that works when the light is on, and we can't have a shaver socket installed at all as there's no permanent power once the light is off.

Hopefully that all makes sense!

So to any electricians on here, I ask:

- have I been well advised?
- is there anything that can be done to find the junction box without digging out the walls?
- do I have any other options?

I'm in the Beckenham area so if any sparks work round here and fancy quoting on any work, PM me.

Over to you guys, hope you can help. Cheers!

Dazzler21

I know of a cleaner on here, they'll give you a 15% discount for being on CL.... :

but not any sparkies!

To_Be_Franck

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

Hi all, not a regular poster but do so occasionally. Am always struck by the bredth of knowledge on here though so thought I'd ask for some advice. Professional if possible but open to all!

I want to put an extractor fan in my bathroom, but the half jobbers that owned the place before me only ran the whole bathroom electrics off a spur rather than the mains. As the bathroom used to be separate toilet and bathroom, we have no idea where the junction box is. So we've been told we can only have one that works when the light is on, and we can't have a shaver socket installed at all as there's no permanent power once the light is off.

Hopefully that all makes sense!

So to any electricians on here, I ask:

- have I been well advised?
- is there anything that can be done to find the junction box without digging out the walls?
- do I have any other options?

I'm in the Beckenham area so if any sparks work round here and fancy quoting on any work, PM me.

Over to you guys, hope you can help. Cheers!

Personal preference I know, but I wouldn't recommend shaving in the dark anyway

smiffyboy

Hi SEY,

What you have told is true to an extent as a bathroom fan needs a switched live feed to turn it on when you turn the bathroom light on and a perment feed to make it run for a timed period after the light is off. The same with a shaver point as it needs to be live continually.

There is no easy way of finding the old joint box but they normally are where old lights used to be in the ceiling so look for clues ie filler marks ruff patches etc.

Is the bathroom upstairs or down? If upstairs what's stopping anyone climbing in the loft and looking or taking a feed from a light in a bedroom or hallway etc.

Super_Eddie_Youds

Cheers smiffy, I'm in a downstairs flat with no access to upstairs unfortunately. Will have a look for clues as you suggest.

Can the live feed run off the old joint box then?

Our fuse box is only across the hall from the bathroom, could a new feed be run off that to the bathroom?

smiffyboy

If you can find the old joint then you could alter the wiring in the bathroom to do what you want. Failing that you could pull a new feed from the fuse board providing you have a spare way but obviously without looking at it could involve making a few holes etc and would be abit of a long way around what you wanna do. I would love to help you but I've crossed over to the dark side and am now in the office pen pushing and what little time I do get out is taken up at the minute in other privates I have.

Super_Eddie_Youds

Thanks mate, more than helpful!