Shower fan / light combo units – recommendations?

When I bought the near-ruin I now live in, all looked fine and dandy. As it turned out the fresh paint was almost structural, and certainly hid a multitude of sins, one of which was rising damp meets falling damp meets condensation in a shower room.

We’ve addressed the leaking roof and the high external ground level but condensation remains an issue. To tackle this we’re going to (a) replace the asthmatic wall-mounted fan with a powerful one that will actually do something and (b) get an extractor fan put in above the shower to remove most of the water vapour before it can cause problems.

I’ve seen some integrated light & fan units that seem to be an elegant solution. Are there any recommendations or warnings I need to heed?

Thanks.

I wouldn’t have thought a std ceiling fan & light unit would appreciate exposure that amount of moisture in the air (regularly)… also all it would do it move it about the room (/house) and not extract it, which is really your requirement?

Id put a serious ducted fan in – shifts a lot more air than the standard bathroom ones

That’s what’s going in the wall of the room (to replace the current one); I was thinking of an integrated one directly over the shower too (the room configuration is such that the wall-mounted one is lower than the top of the shower.

…also all it would do it move it about the room (/house) and not extract it, which is really your requirement?

The ceiling is also the roof, so an extractor over the shower would go straight up and outside, hopefully getting the moisture out of the room & house.

aha makes more sense…

How long is the pipe run you intend to use behind the integrated light/fan?

Axial fans which most bathroom fans are, don’t deal very well with long runs of pipe, as there is too much resistance to the flow.

We replaced a centrifugal fan that died with an axial one and about 3-4 months later had to replace it with a proper centrifugal fan, as the length of pipe in the roof to the exit point was too long for the axial fan to cope with.

Axial fans are good for high flow rate, low resistance
Centrifugal fans will deliver lower flow rate, but can cope with higher resistance.

It’s getting more & more complex …

Pipe run will be small – in fact, the challenge will be fitting it in. We’ve got a custom tile with hood built in, and there’ll be about 15 – 30cm of pipe to connect it to the fan, if that.

I’m not an electrician, but i really don’t think that is a safe combination, shower/fan fine, probably a bit like a power shower. Shower / fan / light just sounds dangerous

Farticus – Member
It’s getting more & more complex …

Pipe run will be small – in fact, the challenge will be fitting it in. We’ve got a custom tile with hood built in, and there’ll be about 15 – 30cm of pipe to connect it to the fan, if that.

That shouldn’t be a problem…. 😉

For the situation I mention above, the bathroom was in the ‘middle’ of the house and the pipe run must have been getting on for 3.5-4m….

Have you looked at Screwfix? I think when I was looking, they had some fan/light combos…..

Got our Fan/light combo from B&Q, about £30 iirc. Wired ours up to the bathroom light and had it set on an over-run timer, although you can have them on a seperate switch altogether. Even with a shower screen/curtain as opposed to a cubicle they do make a big difference to the amount of steam within the room.

I’m going to assume that opening a window is not an option?

I’m going to assume that opening a window is not an option?

Correct. It seems to have been painted shut a few decades ago. We do have a skylight which we open anyway but even with that and the asthmatic fan there’s still a condensation problem.

Shower / fan / light just sounds dangerous

Fan / light is a combo, above the shower. Not in my wildest nightmares would I be looking for a light than also spouted water!!

We use this in a dampish shower room with a serious (up to 25L per minute) power shower

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Ventilation_Index/Shower_Fan_Light/index.html but with an over-run timer

with something like this http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/ADAV100.html

And you would need the transformer for the light.

Working well for 10 years, needed to replace the fan once.