TL;DR
12V / 150mm bathroom exhaust fans are difficult to find in EU (in online shops), but I found two. If you’re in UK, it’s Manrose, or Dalap in EU.
Intro
It looks like there is something German in my Balkan genes: I can’t stand stale air indoors, so I open windows all the time and install exhaust fans wherever possible.
So I added another one in kid’s bathroom. This one was tricky, because the hole through a wall is in Zone 1 (right above the bathtube). Firstly I wanted to install 230V fan and tried to invent up all sorts of protections against splashing.
Then my paranoid brain decided no 230V in that area. I started to search online for 12V fans. There are hundreds of 230V models out there: with/out shutters, humidity sensors, timers, all kinds of shapes and colours, you name it.
But 12V1?
Rare.
12V AND 150mm diameter?
Crickets.
Then I found one producer in UK (Manrose) that makes the exact fan that I needed. Unfortunately, they do not ship to EU. I found one online shop (fans4less) that ships to EU, but the shipping fee is 119€ (more than fan).
Funny, but no.
After few days, when I almost gave up, I found that there is one German company (Dalap) that produces the exact fan (Dalap LV) that I need.
Unfortunately, their online shop (iVentilatoren.de) doesn’t ship to Slovenia. But I could order directly from them (dalap.eu)
I also needed to order the 230-12v transformer.
I received it in 2 days.
I installed a new ugly junction box outside the bathroom and placed the transformer and the wirings in it:
The fan exhaust pipe is pretty tight; it could be 1mm smaller for easier fit to 150mm exhaust wall pipe.
How long did it took to install it?
Dirty works (chiselling, drilling a small hole through the wall to hallway for cabling) 3hrs, wiring/installing another 4hrs. I didn’t drill a big hole through the bathroom wall to outside by myself, I don’t have such tool. I called a contractor to do it. The did it quick and without too much dust (diamond drilling), except the hole is not straight (too big drop – 2 cm) and the fan doesn’t fit well to the wall. I have to make some frame around it to cover the gap on the bottom side – for better visual look.
What else remains?
I wired it to the manual control switch for now.
I need to order a zbmini switch, 2 humidity sensors and add it to homeassistant (as I did with the other fan) to automate it.
Conclusion
As many times before when purchasing something slightly non-standard, I hit 2 walls:
- search is broken: it’s difficult to find a product using general online search (google, ecosia,…). Search in most online shop is awful. And no, before you ask, LLM do not help, I tried. When I finally found them, I was quite satisfied with iventilatoren.de, because it was the only online shop with relevant filters (Voltage, Diameter).
- shipping is broken: I simply can’t understand that in year 2026, globalization at it’s peak, I can’t order a thing from UK to EU or from Germany to Slovenia. This is not the first time (see my other post Repairability of household appliances is mission impossible).