Heated bathroom towel rail connected to the light switch/circui?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Heated bathroom towel rail connected to the light switch/circui?

NumPy

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#268447 20-Mar-2020 10:38

Hello all. I am new here and I have an electrical question. I consider myself to be pretty DIY around the house and also have some personal knowledge of electrical house wiring/electronics etc. Long story short. We had an electrician come in and install a new bathroom heated towel rail and bathroom fan. We purchased these items from Mitre 10. The electrician ended up installing a new light switch (new gang with separate switch for bathroom fan) All good. But ended up wiring the heated bathroom towel rail also to the light switch, and installing a new outlet with another switch under the towel rail. It all looks/works pretty good, and overall his work was superb. My question though is this towel rail connection legal/safe? I thought light circuits were designed for lights only. I did not want to question the electrician as he seemed to know what he was doing.

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#2441957 20-Mar-2020 10:41

If I understand your comment correctly - in that the light and towel rail are joined at the hip?

I would have thought you'd want the towel rail on separately, so you can run it separately without the light on?

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timmmay

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#2441966 20-Mar-2020 10:54

You should ask your electrician, and ask for the code of compliance certificate.

NumPy

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#2441971 20-Mar-2020 11:00

tehgerbil:

If I understand your comment correctly - in that the light and towel rail are joined at the hip?

I would have thought you'd want the towel rail on separately, so you can run it separately without the light on?

No, they have new independent switching (fan/light/towel rail), but they all connected to the original bathroom light circuit. The feed in the gang, for the original light now also piggybacks the bathroom fan, and a heated towel rail. I would have thought the lighting circuit was designed for just the lights, and maybe a bathroom fan. Surely the towel rail would need to have been on its own circuit?

Wheelbarrow01

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#2441973 20-Mar-2020 11:02

tehgerbil:

If I understand your comment correctly - in that the light and towel rail are joined at the hip?

I would have thought you'd want the towel rail on separately, so you can run it separately without the light on?

No I think what he is saying is that the sparky has fed power from the light switch to the new switch that controls the towel rail - but that feed is taken from the hot (always on) side of the lightswitch - meaning it makes no difference if the lightswitch is on or off. The second switch where the towel rail is wired in has permanent power and it functions correctly. The question is more around the legality of powering a towel rail off an extension from a lighting curcuit - which I don't have an answer for. In my mind the towel rail should really be on it's own circuit (or at least shared with other power sockets - not the lights), but I'm no electrician so am not sure.

NumPy

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#2441975 20-Mar-2020 11:04

Wheelbarrow01:

In my mind the towel rail should really be on it's own circuit (or at least shared with other power sockets - not the lights), but I'm no electrician so am not sure.

Yes that's what I thought too. I did go and try to find the answer on the NZ Electrical Forum but could not find an exact answer to my question there either

NumPy

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#2441978 20-Mar-2020 11:09

For reference its a Goldair 7 bar straight towel warmer, Model: CDBTR7

Apparently just 68W, so not very much at all.

sen8or

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#2441993 20-Mar-2020 11:41

It all comes down to maths as I understand it.

Most domestic lighting circuits are on 1.0mm TPS, I don't know how much power this is rated to take, but it would have been the same cable to wire up x4 (or 8 or more) 100w light fittings that now powers up x4 (or 8 or more) 12w led fittings. More than likely plenty of spare capacity on the cable itself. If the towel rail is only 68w, then thats less draw than an old style light.

The lighting circuit will most likely be protected by a 16a MCB and if reasonably new, 3 MCBs will be protected by a RCD.

Wheelbarrow01

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#2441999 20-Mar-2020 11:42

I just reached out to my friend who is a licenced electrician and he has confirmed this is fine and absolutely legal due to the low wattage of heated towel rails. Even at 150 watts that's still no more than the largest of lighbulbs.

[EDIT: Just a caveat that it depends how many lights you have in the room and what wattage they all are, but assuming 1 x 100w bulb and the 68w towel holder, then that is fine]

NumPy

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#2442001 20-Mar-2020 11:45

Thanks for the response here everybody. I got a CoC but for some reason was still doubting what was done.

NumPy

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#2442043 20-Mar-2020 11:48

Wheelbarrow01:

I just reached out to my friend who is a licenced electrician and he has confirmed this is fine and absolutely legal due to the low wattage of heated towel rails. Even at 150 watts that's still no more than the largest of lighbulbs.

[EDIT: Just a caveat that it depends how many lights you have in the room and what wattage they all are, but assuming 1 x 100w bulb and the 68w towel holder, then that is fine]

All LED, so the lights are very low wattage, the fan I think 36W.

MattR

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#2442296 20-Mar-2020 16:34

Yes it's quite common - ours are connected to the lighting circuits.

hsvhel

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#2442302 20-Mar-2020 16:41

Its only taking a supply to the switch for the rail. Nothing wrong there.

As long as the rail position is in its correct zone and switchable your'e good to go

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gregmcc

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#2442316 20-Mar-2020 17:03

NumPy:

Hello all. I am new here and I have an electrical question. I consider myself to be pretty DIY around the house and also have some personal knowledge of electrical house wiring/electronics etc. Long story short. We had an electrician come in and install a new bathroom heated towel rail and bathroom fan. We purchased these items from Mitre 10. The electrician ended up installing a new light switch (new gang with separate switch for bathroom fan) All good. But ended up wiring the heated bathroom towel rail also to the light switch, and installing a new outlet with another switch under the towel rail. It all looks/works pretty good, and overall his work was superb. My question though is this towel rail connection legal/safe? I thought light circuits were designed for lights only. I did not want to question the electrician as he seemed to know what he was doing.

Yes it is legal, you could if you wanted have a power point connected to the light circuit provided that the protection is correctly rated for the light circuit cable rating.

Did you get a COC from your electrician?

richms

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#2442413 20-Mar-2020 19:25

Had this discussion when I decided to plug a wall heater into the socket that was installed for the rangehood and found it was on the lighting circuit. Apparantly its not a general purpose outlet if its installed in some conditions so it can go on a lighting circuit. One of the conditions was height so not sure if an outlet for a towel rail would be fine.

My towel rail was on a permanent connection unit that was on the lighting circuit, and that was done by a sparky but was before the obsession of RCD on everything so even if I wanted to I couldn't have swapped it for an outlet and kept it on the same circuit as the bathroom outlets were the only ones that needed RCD back when I changed the bathroom around, so got a new circuit and RCD just for that at the time.

Richard rich.ms

sparkz25

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#2442440 20-Mar-2020 20:06

gregmcc:

NumPy:

Hello all. I am new here and I have an electrical question. I consider myself to be pretty DIY around the house and also have some personal knowledge of electrical house wiring/electronics etc. Long story short. We had an electrician come in and install a new bathroom heated towel rail and bathroom fan. We purchased these items from Mitre 10. The electrician ended up installing a new light switch (new gang with separate switch for bathroom fan) All good. But ended up wiring the heated bathroom towel rail also to the light switch, and installing a new outlet with another switch under the towel rail. It all looks/works pretty good, and overall his work was superb. My question though is this towel rail connection legal/safe? I thought light circuits were designed for lights only. I did not want to question the electrician as he seemed to know what he was doing.

Yes it is legal, you could if you wanted have a power point connected to the light circuit provided that the protection is correctly rated for the light circuit cable rating.

Did you get a COC from your electrician?

It is Legal as @gregmcc has mentioned! all comes down to the rating of the cable and correct circuit protection

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