A bathroom exhaust fan does not have a built in GFI, which is short for "ground fault interrupter," or GFCI, also called a "ground fault circuit interrupter." This means that if the fan gets too wet, it will not cause the circuit to trip until it causes the circuit breaker in the circuit box to overload. Most exhaust fans wire through an electrical outlet in the room. To turn your exhaust fan into a GFI fan, you must replace the non-GFI outlet with a GFI outlet. This way, when the fan gets too wet, it will trip the GFI breaker inside the electrical outlet and prevent the main breaker in the breaker box from tripping.
Instructions
1. Turn off the power to the bathroom circuit via the breaker box. After turning off the power, attempt to turn on the light switch or run an electrical appliance in the room. This will ensure you turned off all of the power to the room. In some cases, it is possible to have one room connected to two different circuits.
2. Remove the screws that hold the cover plate onto the outlet into which you want to tie. Use a screwdriver to do this. Once removed, remove the two screws that hold the outlet into the electrical box and pull the outlet out of the box.
3. Loosen the screws that hold wires on each side of the outlet and pull all of the wires off the outlet. Discard the old outlet. Make sure none of the wires touches each other.
4. Turn the power back on to the room momentarily and locate the wire with the power. To do this, use a circuit tester. It is important to know which wire carries power to the switch, since GFI outlets require the wires to go to specific junction points on the switch. Turn off the power once you know.
5. Secure the wires with power to the terminal marked "Line." To do this, wrap the exposed end of the black wire around the brass screw and tighten the screw with the screwdriver. Do the same by looping the white wire around the silver screw. If you have a bare wire, loop it around the green screw and secure it.
6. Attach the wires coming from the exhaust fan to the side of the GFI switch marked "Load." Follow the same color code as the previous set of wires.
7. Push the wires into the electrical box and secure the new GFI outlet to the box. Place the new cover plate over the outlet and secure it with a screwdriver.
8. Turn the power back on.
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