I spoke with the electrician whom is independent of the company that installed the heater/fan unit in the bathroom ceiling.

The unit, itself, was manufactured correctly.

The fuse was a 12 amp fuse.
The circuit breaker is 20 amps.

The company that installed the unit did not replace the wiring to the unit. They used the old wiring which was installed in 1975 when the house was built.

The company that installed the unit connected two black wires to the unit which doubled the 110 voltage to 220 volts.

The fire last year in that room was a little questionable in itself: The company was doing some repairs to my home. Two of the employees smoke. I don't mind that they smoke, just I did not allow them to smoke in my home. Outside was just fine.

I thought it was odd that one of the crew members needed to use the restroom four times in three hours. Isn't this a bit much? Low and behold, he walks out of my home puffing on a lit cig. I asked, "Were you smoking in the house?"
Crew: No, I was not.
Me: You were not smoking in the house?
Crew: No, I was not.

I entered my home to find the door to the bathroom closed. We keep it open so people know that it is available.

I carefully swing the door open. Sparks begin to drop from the unit. Then flames erupt from it! Damn! I begin yelling to clear out of the house that we have a fire in the bathroom. I called 911. I fire truck arrived. The police arrived, also. One of the other crew members obtained his company's fire extinguisher out of his truck and put the flames out. DH shut off the main circuit breaker.

However, the fire marshal determined that the unit had two shorts in its wiring. My insurance company paid for cleaning and repainting the bathroom. Our cost was the deductible, the cost of a new unit, and the labor cost of installing it. All of this happened in November.

Here we are in April. Back to the conversation with the independent electrician from a different company. The reason he was hired was to ascertain whether the unit was faulty (then the manufacturer would have to pony up for a new one plus labor charges), not wired correctly, or just what the cause of the problem was.

On Tuesday, the electrician will return with an entirely new unit. He said that he will be running new wiring from the unit to the circuit breaker and be replacing the circuit breaker itself. He said it will take him 3-4 hours to do this.

I told them that we had thrown out the old, burnt unit but that we had another exact duplicate of it in the other bathroom that he could look at. He indicated that he would, at no charge to us, look at that unit's wiring, also, to insure it is okay. Bless his heart!

I feel much better now!

Btw, we had/have no intention of tinkering with the unit. Electricity can kill.

Once the unit is replaced, I think I will be writing my insurance company. The original company should not be installing wiring for electrical appliances in peoples' homes.

I am going to ask the independent electrician to inspect every aspect of this company's work as it relates to anything they touched that was electrical.

Sigh! It is good to be alive. Let's keep it that way, okay!

Just wondering...
Did you request to have the house rewired when the new unit was attached?

Generally, rewiring would be a (considerable) additional expense.

When you hire an electrician to put in any unit/light/fan he will normally only attach the new unit to already existing wiring.

I live in a house that was built in 1921. I have had my share of electricity probs and they are scary. I'm glad you got yours ironed out.

You may have prevented a major fire :)

i like electricity :)

any electrician who connected two colored (black, red, whatever) conductors to a 110v. appliance should have (his) ticket punched.

Be sure to file a Written Complaint with the gov't unit that licensed that individual in your location.

excellant!!