Aidelle Loovent starts on its own.

[kenshail]

After many years of hearing our Aidelle extractor fan start on its own occasionally when a light or other appliance was switched on I decided to investigate. I traced out the circuit of the little printed circuit and applied a very small modification that did the trick. There was nothing magic about it, the solution was textbook and I was disgusted that the designer did not observe a simple precaution that is well known about in electronics circles. If anyone would like my notes on how to fix it I shall be pleased to send the circuit diagram showing the one additional, penny costing component.
Email ken<at>shail.co.uk

 

[John560]

Hi I've just installed one of these and it looks like I've bought the wrong model. The model I have is the 01 version which I now realise won't work with a timer on a pull cord light switch. I have it working a switched basis by wiring both the trigger and the live back to the light switch live feed but as a result there is no 'run on' when the light is switched off. Any ideas how I could get the timer to work. I'm reluctant to try to take it back to the retailer because a) it was difficult to fit and b) its my own fault I've got the wrong one. Any help/ideas you can give me would be most apprecated.

 

[EFLImpudence]

John560

If I'm reading correctly you have taken both the permanent live and switched live to the light switch. Have you connected both of them to the same connector? You should connect the fan PL to the switch PL (probably red (or brown)) and the fan SL to the switch SL (probably black (or blue)).
These SL wires should be sleeved with red (or brown) to indicate they will be live.

Where have you connected Neutral and earth?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:fan

 

[John560]

Hi I've used 4 core wire which is already sleeved. Red for Live Grey for the Trigger and Black for Neutral plus a earth. The neutral and earth are wired to the approprate connections the grey (trigger) is wired to the live switch return as specified in the manufacturers wiring diagram. The deviation is that the live is not currently wired to the perminant live in the lighting circuit as per the manuacturers instructions because if I do this the fan will switch on when the pull cord switch is switched on but will not swtch off again after the light is switched off i.e. the timer doesn't auto disconnect the fan. My work a round is to connect the red wire to the swiched live alongside the Grey trigger wire. This means that the live connection is completely controlled by the light pull cord switch. Apparently this particular model will not work with a pull cord (although it apparently works with a normal light switch).

 

[bernardgreen]

will not swtch off again after the light is switched off i.e. the timer doesn't auto disconnect the fan.

and earlier

and the live back to the light switch live feed but as a result there is no 'run on' when the light is switched off.

Do you want it to "run on" for a period after the light is turned off ?

Have you set the time of the "run on" to a short time ?

Apparently this particular model will not work with a pull cord (although it apparently works with a normal light switch).

That is most un-likely as both are electrically identical in action. It might be it has to have a two pole switch but that too is unlikely

Some fans will be continually triggered when the lamp is OFF if the lamp is a low energy lamp that does not provide a route through the filament to neutral for the switched live wire. Capacitive coupling between live and switch live in the wiring to the switch can introduce enough voltage on the switched live to trigger the fan but not light the lamp. A filament lamp prevents that voltage building up. Energy saving lamps do not.

 

[John560]

Hi. I phoned the Airflow Technical services dept to see if they had any ideas and they say this fan should work on a pul cord switch and that the circuit board must be faulty. Airflow give a three year warranty and they have offered to exchange the fan for a new one. I then phoned the retailer who has one is stock which they have agred to hold as a replacement. I couldn't see how the different switch would make any difference but there is a note buried in the installation manual that maybe I misread as saying is does. Anyway Airflow were sure it was a faulty board so I'm going to change it tomorrow. Thanks to all contributors for your comments/advice. I'll post again on this thread if the new fan works ok.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Hi I've used 4 core wire which is already sleeved. Red for Live Grey for the Trigger and Black for Neutral plus a earth.

Red, grey & black?

Sure it's not brown, grey & black?

And it is widely held that best practice is not to use black as the neutral because that colour association needs to be broken.

I hope you've sleeved all the lives brown and the neutral blue.

The deviation is that the live is not currently wired to the perminant live in the lighting circuit as per the manuacturers instructions because if I do this the fan will switch on when the pull cord switch is switched on but will not swtch off again after the light is switched off i.e. the timer doesn't auto disconnect the fan.

Assuming you've left it long enough to be sure that the timer period has expired (you did turn it down to the minimum?) then I agree with the manufacturer - the control circuitry is broken.

Apparently this particular model will not work with a pull cord (although it apparently works with a normal light switch).

Oh how I would love to have the person who told you that come here and explain how the fan can tell the difference.

 

[John560]

Yes it was Brown, Grey and Black I checked today when I took the old fan out. Good point about the sleeving I had forgotten to do that and will attend to it when I put the new fan in. Thanks for the reminder.

In terms of the switches. It may be that I mis-read the installation I was going to attach a picture of the relevant page but I'm new to this forum and I'm not sure how to do it. Thanks again for the sleeving reminder.

 

[John560]

Just to wrap up this post (or at least my part of it). I just fitted the new fan and it works fine so it must have been the circuit board that was the problem. I made sure all the correct sleeving was in place. One again thanks to 'ban all sheds' for the reminder.