I got my 125mm (5") RVK fan last week and when I came to wire it up I saw that the two black wires from the fan have no markings other than 1 and 2 (what do these numbers stand for?) I have searched the forum and read every thread to do with this subject but I'm still not 100% I currently have it wired like it shows in the diagram that the growshops give you. I just don't understand why the black wires aren't labeled live/neutral or does it really not matter which way round they go? (as someone on here said)

Heres how I have it wired-


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If you wired as per the diagram you'll be fine. Its cheaper for the companys to buy lots of one colour cable than to buy differnet colours its just easier for them saves time. Don't worry. I can see the L1 on the photo looks right to me

i think only grounding(brown wire in my country atleast)needs to be on wired,on other wires it should be whatever u put ,but not sure PM electric man dont fire yourself up i did that once its not cool

doesn't make a shit of difference ( in this case)

If you wire it up the wrong way round then surely it'll blow in reverse?

no, mains electric is AC, i.e. it pushes one direction and then the other. makes absolutely no difference which way around they go into the fan.

further back in the system it does make a difference though, as neutral is connected to earth, there is never a voltage difference between neutral and earth meaning you can't get an electric shock from the neutral, the live side is obviously 240v to earth, so you will get a shock from the live. so you never switch something off on the neutral side as the terminals of the equipment would be at 240v compared to earth despite the machine not actually running, but at the actual point where the machine is connected it makes no odds which way round they go.

with DC the fan would go in reverse

if you look though, the terminals don't actually match the markings, for example there's an earthing symbol, yet the unit doesn't actually have an earth

I have this wired with a 13amp 250v wire i cut off a broken heater i had lying about
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is this safe?

If you mean you've just used the mains flex off the old heater, then yes - it will be more than up to the job.

The connector block just needs moving down a peg for it to match.

There will be no earth required because it will be Class II equipment (double insulated)

yes thats what i meant

no shit

your point ....... ?

i stole a 13a flex off of an old lava lamp i think youll be fine mate, been running my rvk 5yrs+

the point being, you quoted my post, to point out something totally irrelevant to the point i was trying to make

This was bugging me so when I cleaned my fans recently I wired one of them back up the 'wrong' way, just to see what would happen. I'm living on the edge man!




Made no difference, as has already been stated.

It takes alot more than swapping cables over on a single phase AC fan / motor to make it reverse

Dead vacuum cleaners and flymos are a good source for long mains flex.

It's not totally relevant actually , it explains why they don't match.

Anyway , all information is appreciated regardless of the source , as long as it's factual and correct

ok, thought you were dick waving




doesn't really, you just need to swap the capacitor wires/start winding wires on most

Surely a 13amp fuse is too big

not on about will the fan work in reverse you moron, we're on about will the fan rotate in the right direction if the live and neutral are swapped around. pretty obvious the fan wont work in reverse.


and yes, a 13A fuse is too big really. 3A is the appropriate size