Install a bathroom fan-light-heater for comfort and convenience.
A bathroom light with a fan and heater provides comfort and convenience. The fan exhausts damp air, the heater warms the room and the fixture provides light at the same time. The unit can be wired with each component on a different switch, or with the fan and light on the same switch. Whichever way you choose to wire it, the light-fan-heater unit should be installed on a separate circuit breaker.
Instructions
1. Turn off power to the circuit by turning the circuit breaker off. Run 12 gauge sheathed cable between the fan-light-heater unit and the switch box. Run two lengths of cable if you are wiring the fan and light on the same switch, and three lengths if the fan and light will be on separate switches. Strip six inches of sheathing from the ends of each cable and push the cable into the switch box and the fan-light-heater wiring box.
2. Make a pigtail on the hot wire coming from the circuit breaker. Cut one 6-inch length of 12 gauge black wire for each switch and strip 1-inch of one end of each, and 3/4-inch of insulation from the other end of each. Strip 1-inch of insulation from the end of the black hot wire. Twist all the 1-inch bare wire ends together with a lineman's pliers and twist on a wire nut.
3. Strip 1-inch of insulation off all the white wires. Twist the bare ends together with the lineman's pliers and cap with a wire nut.
4. Cut an 8-inch piece of bare copper ground wire for each switch. Twist all of the incoming bare ground wires together with the pieces cut for the switches. Trim the end of the twisted wires and cap them with a wire nut or use a copper ground crimp to hold them together.
5. Turn the remaining ends of the ground wires into a U-shape with a long-nose pliers. Loosen the green ground terminal screws on the switches with a screwdriver and place the ground wires on the screws so the wire wraps around the screw clockwise. Tighten the green ground screws firmly.
6. Strip the 3/4 inch of insulation from the black wires coming from the fan-light-heater unit. Turn the end of each, and the black pigtailed wires, into a U-shape with the long-nose pliers. Loosen the switch terminals with a screwdriver. Place one wire from the pigtail and one wire from the fan-light-heater unit on each switch. The U-shaped wire end should wrap clockwise around the terminal. Tighten all the terminals firmly.
7. Twist all the ground wires together in the fan-light-heater unit, leaving a tail to attach to the green ground wire or green ground terminal. Use a wire nut to connect the bare ground wire with the green ground wire, or wrap the tail clockwise around the green ground screw and tighten the screw.
8. Strip 1-inch of insulation from the ends of the white wires coming from the switches. Twist these white wires together with the lineman's pliers. Hold the twisted white wire ends together with the white fan-light-heater unit white wires and twist on a wire nut.
9. Strip 3/4-inch of insulation from the black wires coming from the switches. Connect each black wire from the switches to one fan-light-heater unit colored wire by holding them together and twisting on a wire nut.
Tags: fan-light-heater unit, green ground, insulation from, together with, 1-inch insulation, coming from, ground wire