We have a bathroom light and extractor fan both turned on by one pull cord, but the first time you try to turn it on, the light just flickers or doesn’t come on at all, but when you switch it off and then turn it back on, it comes on fine. We have replaced the bulb and tried a different type, but the issue remains and is consistent, so assuming something is alternating and there is a fault in one area, but not the other. Any ideas what could cause this?
Switch – Bathroom light has to be switched on twice to work
bathroomlightswitch
Related Solutions
There's no such thing as too many wires between the bathroom switch and the bathroom light/fan/heatlamp/whatever the future may bring. I would run at least 3 hots and a neutral, with 1 hot and 1 neutral being 12ga for a high current device. Even better, install conduit and pull whatever as needed.
I personally hate fans which turn on with the light. I fear I'll wake others during a 3AM bathroom run. It also wastes energy by ejecting nice warm/cool air, forcing the HVAC system to work harder.
This forum is not for "shop for you", but there's no problem getting a single switch that turns off the fan some period after it turns off the light. the fan with a delay. on light+fan, and turns off light and adand continues the fan for a designated period.
There's also no trouble getting rundown timer switches if you want to manually trigger the fan. However if you also have a heatlamp (commonly put on rundown timers), this will be a confusing UI.
They even make fan controls which detect humidity. The question is whether they have, um... VOC detection.
Amazon links on SE pay a tiny commission to somebody, possibly me. It biases me toward linking products sold on Amazon.
SELV 12 means it is a 12-volt device.
Your "voltage screwdriver" is not suitable for testing low voltages like this.
The wiring should be as follows
Note this shows a main bathroom-light as well as a low-voltage light inside the fan unit.
Your pull-cord switch operates at 240VAC.
The Transformer does not supply power to the main bathroom-light. Only to the SELV light inside the fan-unit (where applicable).
The usual reason for lights not lighting is that the light-bulb needs replacing. You don't say whether you have replaced the bulb or tested it.
You can check the 12v connections using a more suitable voltage tester (with a 12V capability but safe for 240VAC)
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Best Answer
Pull chain switches have a rotating contact plate; each time you pull it it spins the plate and alternates between no-contact/contact-1/no-contact/contact-2/no-contact/contact-3 (the numbers are hypothetical, different switches have different numbers of contacts...). I suspect that one of the contact positions is dodgy (corroded terminal, bent contact blade, etc.)
You need a new switch.