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Rydon Maintenance North London Region has joined up with One Planet Products in an effort to move towards a fully sustainable approach to building maintenance. One small example of this is the use of the Ferrob low voltage, digital extract fan. We replace quite a few fans as they are used within 100% of the tenanted properties we maintain. This equates to roughly 4600 dwellings. The new fans cost slightly less to buy and take the same time to fit as any other standard bathroom / kitchen fan.

How is it installed?

Our electrical operative provided these comments:

"I was called to replace a faulty bathroom extractor and this gave me the opportunity to install the new Ferrob fan. I was keen to install the fan as it appears to have many benefits over a standard extractor and I was particularly looking forward to seeing how the digital readout worked.

The fitting of the fans body was as standard, with the case and the integral fan sitting flush in the existing 100mm hole in the bathroom wall. The fan was fixed by the easily located fixing holes and connected to the pre-wired cable.

Bathroom fans need to be 12v, the step down transformer was fitted outside of the bathroom next to the local isolation switch. This was mounted up high and out of the line of site. The transformer being white also blended into the colour of the wall."

How does it work?

"Once connected and all dead and live tests had been successfully undertaken, I energised the circuit. As the bathroom light was on, the fan started and I was pleased to note how smoothly it ran, with just a faint hum from the motor.

The digital read out read ‘CL', which meant that the unit was operating in a cleaning cycle for 5 minutes. It repeats this cycle every hour. When this cycle was finished it changed to show a numerical reading of 60. This reading is the humidity level of the bathroom. Once the reading reaches the factory set level of 65, the fan automatically cuts in.

The fan runs under differing conditions, these are -

• Light being on (bathroom occupied)
• Humidistat detects moisture
• Light is off, humidistat level below 65, but the fan is working in timed mode

Overall, the fan was easy to install, aesthetically pleasing and as a conscientious tradesmen, it is reassuring to know that it has been made of entirely recyclable products"