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Electrical Wiring

Opinions on bathroom circuit layout

10 years ago

So, I've loved the information from this site and it has come in very handy as I work on my bathroom remodel.

My question is how to best run circuits for the bathroom given the number of "things" in it.

So, I obviously will have lights (vanity, general, and shower--most likely as part of a fan combo), a receptacle, vent fan, underfloor electric mat heating, heated towel rack and most likely a heat lamp just outside the shower door.

My thought was to put the lights, fan and receptacle on a single 20A circuit (protecting the outlet with a GFCI) and put the heating elements (underfloor mat, towel rack and heat lamp) on a separate 20A (or 30A?) circuit.

Would that work? I am open to suggestions as how to best approach this. I have a subpanel with plenty of room in the box, and the wiring is all accessible from the attic, so running the cables isn't an issue.

Thanks.

Jeff

Comments (2)

Ron Natalie
10 years ago
If the circuit serves no other places other than this bathroom it can be reasonably all on one 20A circuit.

The towel racks are less than an amp, and the floor heat is 12W /sqft usually so unless your bathroom is huge sharing the circuit isn't usually a problem. As anybody with teenage girls can tell you, the killer are monster blow dryers. Two 20A circuits should be plenty.
brickeyee
10 years ago
Blow dryer power is often computed at 130 V (because more power is better, even if it is not real) so a few other small loads on a 20 A is OK.
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