Bathroom fan heater hard wired (need terminology help)

errlloyd · 20-04-2022 10:17am #1

Hi all

I have two fan heaters in my apartment bathrooms that I never use. I need to get rid of them (so I can paint the walls) - and eventually replace them with electric towell warmers. At the moment the two fan heaters are hardwired directly to the mains by a white power cord that goes through a big old square hole in the plasterboard, down through the wall cavity and off into Narnia.

So ideally I'd like to just remove the fan heaters, and put some sort of port/outlet on the wall covering the hole they go through so I can paint everything. Then later mount up the electric radiators.

I am probably going to get an electrician to do this, but when I put the job on Local Heroes I got a quote of 480e for labour and I wanted to sense check that on here. My own assumption is that effectively I need a person to come in, clip the power cable with a pair of snips, wire the snipped cable into something like this, screw it to the wall and leave. Something someone experienced could do in like 20 minutes? Can anyone help me describe in the correct language what I am trying to do, and manage my expectations if I am oversimplifying this.

Thanks all

CreadanLady · 20-04-2022 10:29am

€480 for disconnecting a fan heater at a FCU is absolute piss take money to be charging. It is a 5 minute job.

Surely the flex is going into a FCU as it is? That is the way it should be connected.

errlloyd · 20-04-2022 10:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950538#Comment_118950538

Thanks for the reassurance. What exactly does FCU stand for out of curiosity?

I don't know where the flex goes. I am sure it does go to a fused port somewhere, but I honestly don't know where it is. These fan heaters were installed when the apartment was built so can't believe it is so janky!

greyhound87 · 20-04-2022 11:02am

Can you take a picture of the fans/hole where the power cord is?

Also, can you tell us what exactly you requested on LocalHeros?

This sounds like something you could easily do DIY with a few simple tools. Either way 480 sounds crazy.

errlloyd · 20-04-2022 11:11am

Sure. So here is the fan, just taken off the mounting bracket. The cord is long, and goes down the far side of the wall. I honestly have no idea where it goes.

greyhound87 · 20-04-2022 12:18pm

Wow, that is a real bodge job. I am presuming you own the apartment to be willing to hire an electrician.

Anyway, if both are like that then its an easy job.

For now something simple and cheap like this would do. www.screwfix.ie/p/british-general-900-series-20a-unswitched-flex-outlet-plate-white/21114

You could get an electrician to do this but in reality its a simple job. The easiest way to do it would be to buy a phase tester (To sense current - these can be bought for a few euro), turn off the main fuse to your apartment inside your fuse board, cut said wire above, use your phase tester to confirm power is off to the wire, attach to the plate I linked and then screw that to the wall. To do it right you would probably need to cut a bigger hole in the plaster and place in a receiver box for the plate, but again its not a big job. The main part of the job is to just be sure the power is off.

I'm not an electrician at all and there are probably far more proper procedures but just what I would do in a pinch.

greyhound87 · 20-04-2022 12:34pm

One thing I would be wary of is the load on that wire should you connect a heated radiator to it in future. Although such a radiator is probably low enough sustained wattage.

errlloyd · 20-04-2022 1:16pm

I'd say the fan heater draws way more wattage than a fairly small electric towel warming radiator.

errlloyd · 20-04-2022 1:16pm

meercat · 21-04-2022 7:03am

There should be a switched fused spur unit outside the bathroom that the white flex is connected into. Disconnect the flex from there.

only a registered electrical contractor is permitted to do electrical work in bathrooms by law.

CreadanLady · 21-04-2022 10:25am

@meercat that may be the case in law but at the end of the day who is going to stop me or anyone else doing electrical work in their own bathroom in their own house. I haven't seen any electricity police? Sounds the same as those septic tank inspection police everyone was worried would terrorise rural dwellers a few years back - all a load of hot air that never made it off the paper.

Truth is, that only comes into play, say for example when a landlord needs to do repair or upgrade work on a rented house.

JL spark · 21-04-2022 9:18pm

It’s when someone gets electrocuted due to poor standards of work , up **** creek then

dathi · 25-04-2022 9:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118955295#Comment_118955295

https://www.epa.ie/publications/compliance--enforcement/waste-water/EPA_NIP_Bulletin_2021.pdf

not quit the case with the septic tanks the council inspects tanks under the plan and in 2020 18% failed in waterford

errlloyd · 25-04-2022 10:15am

So I did get a family member who is a registered electrician to come in and do it - I probably could have done it myself. But that didn't turn out to be the dodgy bit. There were uninsulated live wires coming out of a hole in the wall that had been wired into a vanity with built-in lights, but disconnected at some stage. I am a bit new to this so didn't appreciate how dangerous it was but basically if I had been wiping dust off the top of this cabinet it would have been very easy to directly touch a live mains wire.

So he sorted all that out.

Bathroom fan heater hard wired (need terminology help)

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