Installing socket near bathroom

[huggybear]

I plan to install an extra socket near my bathroom door running as a spur from my fuse box (which is on the same wall). What distance should it be from my bath?

 

[breezer]

Why do you wnat a socket near the bathroom?

 

[mapj1]

Within the UK regs, this is only possible if the socket is outside the bathroom. Once outside, the wall is your own
Most of the rest of Europe allow sockets in zone 3, (60cm away or more) but vary as to whether RCD protection should be 30mA or 10mA, and if you should feed from conduit from above, or have additional bonding, and Denmark at least has a minimum height requirement.
Harmonisation will probably allow proper RCD protected sockets in the bathroom one day, but not at the moment I'm afraid.
regards M.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Harmonisation will probably allow proper RCD protected sockets in the bathroom one day, but not at the moment I'm afraid.
regards M.

From Approved Document Part P explaining various ways in which you can comply with Part P of the Building Regulations (with my emphasis):

General
0.2 A way of satisfying the fundamental
principles would be to follow:
a. the technical rules described in the
body of BS 7671: 2001, or an
equivalent standard approved by a
member of the EEA

so why do you think they aren't allowed right now?

 

[mapj1]

I know I have screw in bulbs and German Schucko sockets in my house, but this is as I have a German wife, and a large array of appliances that fit them, but I suspect I may be a freak in this regard (at least ). BUT to meet the German regs, for example, (as I looked into it) these sockets need to be Schucko type wired in round 3 core, solid core 1.5mm cable not readily available here, - and normal T and E with earth reduced and no sleeved green core is not allowed, and conduit feeding sockets in bathrooms must only come from above to drain condensation, and the supply MUST be fed from an RCD that will cut all power and lights to the bathroom at once. (Oh and a 16A type C MCB covering combined power and lights circuit is expected..) So just using an extension to the UK ring 'to meet Geman regs' is not on.
For what its worth, my Schucko sockets are demountable, being on wooden boards, rawlplugged to the masonary next to a 13A socket, and fed by a length of flex from a 13A plug. This neatly sidesteps any regulatory issues, as 'it's an extension lead' and can be unscrewed and walked off with, when we move..

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So just using an extension to the UK ring 'to meet Geman regs' is not on.

Indeed not, but just like with BS 7671, the Approved Document can only make recommendations and give advice - it has no legal status. And just like the actual law does not require compliance with BS 7671 it does not require compliance with any regulations.

All it requires is that what you do must be reasonably safe, so if you picked the safety-related bits out of acceptable practice elsewhere, e.g. RCDs, vertical conduit, maybe cpc size, then although you are not conforming strictly to German regs, it'd be hard to argue that what you had done was not "reasonably safe".

 

[huggybear]

Socket will be on outside bathroom wall. (My fusebox isn't inside the bathroom by the way). Many thanks for the info.

 

[StirlingScott]

if its outside the bathroom in the hallway it is totally seperate from the bathroom - so no special regulations apply. The only recommendation is that if this new socket is likely to or can easily supply power to equipment used outside the equipotential zone - eg outside the house, then the socket should be protected by a 30ma RCD.

on a footnote - dont be foolish to be installing this socket to plug in equipment that will be taken into the special location of a bathroom. no portable 230volt equipment should be taken into bathroom.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Does an oil-filled Dimplex radiator count as portable equipment?

 

[mapj1]

Only if you cause an accident with it, and someone complains.
For a while I routinely used a fan heater to warm the bathroom in winter, and the lead trailed in accross the landing.
Obviously you don't operate the switches with wet hands, and do treat it with great caution, in respect of getting water onto the business ends. In practice, for me a t least, the bigger risk was fallingover the cable.
We should't get too hung up on this -its not the portability per se, or even where the socket is, or if its a fused spur, that is the issue, as much as if you are likely to be holding it with wet hands while it is on, or fool enough to plug something in/out while dripping wet.
This is why a washing machine is OK, but an electric drill would not be, even if (heaven forbid) it was on a fused spur...
Remember that the UK is the odd one out in not allowing sockets in a bathroom under certain conditions, and the world is not filled with people dead as a consequence.
As far as Huggy is concerned, put the socket were you like, but think about access, cables and trip hazards, and the modern recommendation is effectively between knee and shoulder height for most situations.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Only if you cause an accident with it, and someone complains. .

Well, it's gone now - it was only temporary whilst we had no radiator and plaster to dry off.

Mind you there was nearly an accident when my wife plugged it in once without unwinding the extension lead all the way, and for a while we had 2 sources of heating, and I did complain about her failure to RTFI...