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Fan timer with "stay on" option

Is there a fan timer that has an option to just leave it on? I'm planning to get a bathroom fan, but I also want to be able to just leave it on, to use it to clear air out of the house generally. The fan wouldn't be more than about 2 amps.

I'm sure it's also possible to set up a circuit to bypass a timer that doesn't have a "stay on" switch. How would one do that?

I want a quiet fan timer. Someone told me of a timer which goes up to

12 hours, but they said it makes noise. So something electronic, maybe. Something quiet that goes up to 12 hours would be fine, as long as it also lets you leave the fan on for only a few minutes.

Such a thing wouldn't have to be a *fan* timer specifically, any timer that has a "stay on" option that is good up to 2 amps or so would work.

Thanks Laura

Reply to
Lacustral
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I don't know whereabouts you are, but here in the UK, such an item is commonly available as a shower extractor fan with a built in light

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It is hooked into the normal lighting circuit, and as long as the light is on, the fan runs. When you switch off the light, the fan continues to run up to an adjustable time of 20 minutes

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily

That's interesting. I don't want to leave a light on when the fan is running, but I wasn't going to have a light hooked up to the fan anyway. Sounds like I could use such a switch on a fan, without a light, and leave the switch on if I want ventilation overnight, say. I wouldn't care if, when I go turn the fan off, it keeps on running for a few minutes after I switch it off.

Thanks. You may have come up with a creative solution that the fan company tech support didn't.

I live in the USA.

Laura

Reply to
Lacustral

wire an ordinary switch in parallel with the timers contacts

the cheapest timers are clockwork and do 'tick', but probably make less noise than the fan - they're quiet enough to use in classrooms etc...

I've also seen timers used to control lights and heating

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
Jasen Betts

There's no reason that you could not run this particular fitting without the lamp installed. It employs a switch mode power supply, which doesn't care much whether it's got the combined load of both the fan and lamp, or just the lamp on it. I'm sure a similar unit would be available through Home Depot or wherever.

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily

Seems to me this is the easy, cheap, and obvious answer. The fan timer would normally be mounted in a single-gang outlet box. However, you would install a dual gang outlet box in your wall. Mount the fan timer in one half, and a plain ol' ordinary light switch in the other half. Wire the two devices in parallel. (That means that the incoming black/hot power wire should be connected to one terminal on the fan timer, AND one terminal on the switch. The outgoing black/hot wire is connected to the other terminal on the fan timer, AND the other terminal on the switch. If the timer is electronic, it may call for a connection to the white/neutral wire. Both the timer and the switch may have connections for the bare/ground wire.)

The above covers US installations. Just noticed you are in NZ. The connection theory is the same, but I am not aware of NZ wire colors.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Jeffrey

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