brunnhilde's ventilation fan - part 2

After days of endurance test of the ventilation fan, I am pleased that it is here to stay. The best things about it is it consumes very little power and moves reasonable volume of air, and is whisper quiet. It works well in windy location where it is not safe to fully open the skylight, but leaving it in the safe mode.One concern that I have is the retention of the fan and baffle assembly. It didn't work loose even exposing to strong gusts. So now is to address how to power it in a reasonably elegant way without drilling or cutting. I tap off the power for the light fixture as it is the nearest source of 12Vdc.

Of course I don't want the bath light to be on whenever the fan is in use, but I want a convenient on/off switch for the fan, but without adding one. A simple modification of my hi/lo light switch back to original functionality accomplishes that. The wall switch on the outside now is the master switch for both the light and the fan. The on/off switch on the light fixture allows one to switch off the bath light while keeping the fan on.

As if that is not enough, I want to have the wall switch control the newly added closet lights. So that same switch now controls three things - the fan, bath light, and closet lights.

I swapped out the SPST switch with this on-off-on SPDT rocker switch. It is a drop-in compatible

light and fan off

light off and fan on

light on and fan on

there are two LED lights

the new three positions rocker switch and the LED lights; the small one is for the linen shelf

they are secured to any surface with VHB tape; VHB must stand for Very High Bound strength

they three position rocker switch made this possible without adding a new switch; I took care selecting the location of the LED lights so you never able to see them directly - design for light quality and usability

Thus is designing solutions through difficult constraints. I can't believe I live without the closet lights that long. It was often most frustrating to find things in the storage shelf in pitch black darkness and had to find a flashlight.