Power for my Fantastic Fan

[Richard6959]

I purchased a fantastic fan to install in the vent above the kitchen. The current vent does not have a fan. Will the area be pre wired for the new fan? If not, where should I look for a power source?

2014 Laredo 320TG TT

[chuckster57]

If there is a light close by, just fish wires to that. Vents don't come pre wired for 12V fans. Bedroom vents sometimes come pre wired for 120VAC for a second A/C.

[pjhansman]

You might want to make sure that the light you pull power from isn't from a switched light....or you'll need the light on to run the fan.

I'm having that problem in my 5th wheel....the nearest un-switched light is proving difficult to get to.

[Richard6959]

pjhansman, that is a good point I didn't think about. I need to make sure I find the hot wire that stays on.

[Fishhawk]

I just installed a Fantastic fan in our 27RLS
Here's how I found the power for it

Once I removed the vent, I stuck my hand under the ceiling insulation
and felt around all 4 sides

On our camper, I found a bundle of wires about 12" from the vent cut out

By dropping the nearest ceiling light fixture and separating the bundle of wires
I just found
I was able to gently tug on each wire to determine which one went to the light

Once I found that wire, I knew I had 12 volts

I spliced a new wire onto that for the fan power

Working great!!

I fiqured I just got lucky finding 12 volt power that handy
But it's probably worth a try on your camper too

Good Luck

Originally Posted by Richard6959

I purchased a fantastic fan to install in the vent above the kitchen. The current vent does not have a fan. Will the area be pre wired for the new fan? If not, where should I look for a power source?

2014 Laredo 320TG TT

[SkiSmuggs]

I have the same issue and my ceiling "hall" lights are switched. I did check around about an inch deep or so, but it sounds like I should be more aggressive. Since it will be so high up I would have to operate the fan on/off with a wand, so a wall switch would be good in my case, just not the same one for the lights.

[slow]

I found non-switched power behind my microwave but ended up splicing in at my stove hood after a wire disconnected at the hood. This may also be an option for you since you are in the kitchen area.

I also took advantage of a ceiling light to fish my wires to the vent since I had to cross a truss. I dropped the light then fished the wires across the truss to the opening the light was covering, then I fished the wires from above the light to behind the microwave. That made each run straight and easy to do.


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[Richard6959]

Well we (a friend and I) got the fan installed. When we removed the vent it revealed the opening in the ceiling. The opening was just enough to get my hand in and about 12 inches past the insulation we found the wiring bundle.

To provide a little more room to work we used a jig saw to cut a 6 inch chunk from the 2X2 that framed the hole.

We learned from a local RV tech that all the single wires were 12V and all wires that were bundled with romex would be 110. But to make sure we unplugged our shore line and then shut everything off. Using a probe to test the wires we found a single wire that was still powered with 12V. Knowing now that it was a hot wire not affected by light switches we used that wire. We used Scotch Locks to easily splice the fan hot wire into it. We squeezed a drill through the small opening and drilled a small hole in the metal rib so that we could attach the ground wire.

We used two 4" strait brackets to reattach the chunk of 2X2 that we removed. Then we proceeded with mounting and lap sealing.

Overall it took about 2 hours.