Overhead Fan Wiring. Yes or No?

[Ericb760]

There is a 6" fan in the bathroom. In the kitchen is the same air vent with the same frame but no fan. As you can see in the pics, the hole for the wiring, and the mounting bracket, is there. What are the chances that the wiring for a fan is there as well? I have no reason to tear this apart unless I have a better than average chance that the wiring for a fan is present.

[TerryH]

Generally the majority of wiring is harnessing. This allowed the manufacturers to easily add/change various items as required for purchaser options. If not, it is fairly easy to fish wiring to the closest 12V light to the fan and splice into it.

[Froggy1936]

From my experience if THERE IS AFACTORY OPENING , Than it will have the wireing , You may have to remove all the interior parts to find it though ! Frank

[JohnM]

The short answer is NO. Those vents are re-used, and for convenience sake, all have the same hole in the same place. Only the bathroom is wired-up.

But if you want to pull power to the bedroom vent, then drill a blind 1/2" hole directly back, midway between ceiling and roof, about 8 inches, until you are above the cabinet. You should have a wooden ceiling cabinet for clothes. Then drill UP, from inside the cabinet, to meet the first hole. And run your power through there. There is power already dropped-in from the channel that runs between the ceiling and wall. If you look in the rear cabinet, on the driver's side wall, in that corner - you may have to remove the crappy beige plastic cover - there is purple/green accessory power wires. Don't get those mixed-up with the speaker wires. The 12v accessory wires will have spade connectors on the end for additional loads.

The situation in the front is not so good. Your front-most vent, behind the cab, doesn't have power nearby.

[JohnM]

Let's see if this works

[JohnM]

Parts to build that:


ThermalTake Pure 20 fan.
Pros:
Totally silent
Clear, allows light in (20cm opening, frame is also clear)
Brushless, will probably run for many years.
Moves 130CFM
0.23 amps
$14


Cons:
no speed control, although I find one isn't needed.


Pushbutton latching switch. I'm re-using the one from the bathroom fan.


Wood. 5mm ply. Take off the beige frame to trace the aluminium. You'll need a 14x14" piece with rounded corners. Home Depot has scraps next to the mill that are usually free.


The blue LED's can be pulled out of the fan frame, and their wires cut off or desoldered from the board.


In the photo, a plastic knob from a Heng fan kit is being used, but you can re-use your metal crank arm.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

The short answer is NO. Those vents are re-used, and for convenience sake, all have the same hole in the same place. Only the bathroom is wired-up.

In every single RV we have ever owned...if there is a roof vent already in place that does not have a fan, then if you remove the vent and interior trim, you WILL find 12 volt wires capped off and ready to use if you want to install a power vent.

Kev

[Elandan2]

Or, a conduit to allow you to run your own wires.

[JohnM]

I've taken the entire ceiling down on the inside of the bedroom, right up to the thin fiberglass roof skin, and rebuilt it. No wires anywhere in the ceiling, no conduit, nothing within 3 feet of the vent. Like I said, in the 80's they were too busy boozin' on the weekends to do good engineering. Since you have a mid-90's, they must have sobered-up/died-off by then. I do notice a huge difference in interiors starting in the early 90's, when computer-aided design was beginning to be used.

In every single RV we have ever owned...if there is a roof vent already in place that does not have a fan, then if you remove the vent and interior trim, you WILL find 12 volt wires capped off and ready to use if you want to install a power vent.

Kev

[Elandan2]

I beg to differ here, but our rig has conduits in the ceiling leading from behind the closet nearest the converter to each vent to allow either 12 volt or 110 volt wiring to be installed, and it was built in 1977. In fact, this past fall I installed a MaxAir fan in one of the vents using the conduit to run the wiring.

[Rickf1985]

y bedroom vent has 110 wiring for an AC unit that it does not have but it does not have 12 volt wiring. The front vents on all of them are wired for 12 volt as far as I know. The bedrooms not so much. And my bedroom vent is exactly the same as the one up front with the same hole for the wires. They used the same vent assembly in all positions. wires or not.