Bathroom Wiring—Requirements, Tips, and Tricks

Read article : Bathroom Wiring—Requirements, Tips, and Tricks

First, a caveat. Electricity is dangerous. Not just when you’re working with it, but after the fact as well; mistakes made during wiring can become fire hazards or, in the bathroom especially, electrocution hazards for future users. If you don’t know what you’re doing, hiring an electrician is the best tip we can give you.

If, however, you’re intent on giving it a go, here are some things you’ll need to know.

Outlets

Bathrooms consume a lot of power; they need lots of light, and there are lots of gadgets that are used in the bathroom, albeit not quite so many as in a typical kitchen. This means there needs to be electrical outlets. The old-fashioned bathroom with a single pair of outlets by the door or sink doesn’t really cut it anymore, so building outlets into your vanity or other bathroom cabinets is a great idea. It keeps cords out of the way, and looks great.

Just remember, all bathroom outlets must be GFCI protected. That stands for “ground fault circuit interrupt.” GFCI outlets detect a mismatch in the current going out through the hot wire (the small blade) and into the neutral wire (the wider blade). Electrical devices work by taking electricity from the hot wire, using some of its energy, and then sending it back to the neutral wire. If something goes wrong, and the electricity jumps to the ground, say, through a human body, it detects that, and reacts within milliseconds, saving people from electrocution. GFCI outlets typically have “Test” and “Reset” buttons on them.

While an experienced electrician may be able to install an inline GFCI, or wire a single GFCI outlet to protect multiple downstream outlets, it’s probably best to be safe rather than sorry, and use only GFCI protected outlets in a DIY bathroom project.

A typical modern bathroom runs on a single 20-amp fuse or circuit breaker, so when upgrading an older house’s bathroom, you may need to swap out the circuit breaker or fuse, and upgrade the wiring leading to the bathroom to avoid fire hazards.

Shower Lighting and Vent Fans

While there’s nothing particularly special about the wiring leading to bathroom lighting and vent fans—they run on a 15-amp fuse, most often—the fixtures themselves do have regulations, particularly around the shower and bathtub.

There are two kinds of fixtures: those rated for “damp” usage, and those rated for “wet” usage. All fixtures that will be in a volume of space extending out three feet from the edge of the shower or tub, to eight feet up from the rim, in all directions, must be rated for damp usage. Any fixture that is at risk for direct water spray from a showerhead or hose, must be rated for wet usage. Outside the 3’ x 8’ area, normal fixtures may be used.

Vanity Lighting

Vanities tend to be far enough away from the “shower zone” not to need any special consideration as far as the wiring goes for lighting. However, there are some tricks you may want to follow for the best look and feel, both for the bathroom itself, and for its users when looking in the mirror.

The best lighting tends to be on either side of the mirror. Sconces accomplish this well, and add a touch of elegance and class to a bathroom. Or, for a more modern feel, strip lights are an excellent choice. Whatever fixtures you choose, you’ll want them to be bright enough to provide ample illumination for the face, but not so bright that they blind you to look at directly; this is another reason why sconces are popular.

Even if you also have ceiling lights in your bathroom, you’ll probably still want separate vanity lighting. This is because light from above and behind tends to cast shadows on the face, especially when leaning in close to the mirror for fine detail grooming.

If you need help or ideas for your bathroom remodel, we’d be happy to provide professional advice. Visit us online to with one of our trained designers today. He or she will provide some great ideas on how to use our high-quality RTA cabinets to create the bathroom of your dreams!