One of the most common reasons for installing a ceiling vent is to add a vent fan in a bathroom, which is best done at the site of an existing light fixture. The same process applies if you're cutting in a vent to connect to duct work in the attic. Installing a vent in the ceiling is a project most homeowners can accomplish with the right tools and a moderate amount of expertise.
Instructions
1. Turn off the power to the ceiling light fixture. Remove the fixture by unscrewing it and disconnecting the wires from it, leaving just the electrical box in the ceiling. Go into the attic and remove the electrical box by removing the mounting screws that are holding it to the ceiling joist. Make sure you stand on the joists and not on the plaster or drywall of the ceiling. Pull up the electric wires that were connected to the fixture and set them aside.
2. While in the attic, lay your vent fan kit over the hole where the fixture was, with the square vent opening of the fan sitting on the surface of the plaster or drywall used for the ceiling. The vent should cover the hole completely. With your pencil, trace around the edge of the vent opening. Remove the unit and cut the vent hole using your jigsaw.
3. Set the unit back in place, with the vent opening over the hole so it faces down into the bathroom. Secure the unit to the two nearest ceiling joists with screws, using the mounting brackets that came with the kit. Take the end of the exhaust hose from the kit to the nearest flat exterior wall. Use your hole saw to cut a hole through the wall the same diameter as the hose, then mount the hose onto the wall over the hole with the screws that were provided with your kit.
4. Attach the unit to the electrical wires that came from the ceiling fixture according to the instructions with the kit. Generally, you'll be connecting the black and white wires from the circuit to black and white wires from the unit. To connect them, hold the two wires together pointing in the same direction, screw a wire nut over them and wrap the connection with electrician's tape. Take the bare copper grounding wire from the circuit, wrap it around the green grounding screw on the unit and tighten it.
5. Go back into the bathroom. Install the provided vent cover over the vent hole in the ceiling, using the screws in your kit. Turn the power back on.
Tags: over hole, vent opening, wires from, black white, black white wires, ceiling vent, from circuit