Swap out Shaver Socket for RCD

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rabba

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#296131 24-May-2022 13:50

Hi,

Was planning on swapping out a shaver socket with an RCD socket in the bathroom. What I have discovered is the socket is wired off one of my lighting circuits so it looks like I will need to get a sparky in to drop a new line and connect it to one of the power circuits given a hairdryer would be borderline on amperage. Question; is this common practice to have shaver plugs on lightning circuits or just some cowboy wiring?

Cheers

wellygary

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#2917973 24-May-2022 14:01

Shaver sockets have a restricted limited load, (much less than 10amp) so I suspect it was probably legal "back in the day" to run it off a light circuit,

richms

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#2917999 24-May-2022 14:51

wellygary:

Shaver sockets have a restricted limited load, (much less than 10amp) so I suspect it was probably legal "back in the day" to run it off a light circuit,

It was encouraged to do that in the days of fuses as there was a number of outlets per fuse, but the lighting circuit had no such limit. Towel rails too.

Richard rich.ms

Stu1

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#2918055 24-May-2022 17:12

rabba:
Hi,

Was planning on swapping out a shaver socket with an RCD socket in the bathroom. What I have discovered is the socket is wired off one of my lighting circuits so it looks like I will need to get a sparky in to drop a new line and connect it to one of the power circuits given a hairdryer would be borderline on amperage. Question; is this common practice to have shaver plugs on lightning circuits or just some cowboy wiring?

Cheers

Couldn’t the sparky connect a RCD at the mains? Then wire up a normal plug in the bathroom? . We found power sockets running off lighting during a reno , must of been relaxed certification back in the day

Daynger

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#2918087 24-May-2022 18:18

Yes, it was very common to have shaver outlets running on lighting circuits.

gregmcc

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#2918094 24-May-2022 18:38

Stu1:
rabba:

Hi,

Was planning on swapping out a shaver socket with an RCD socket in the bathroom. What I have discovered is the socket is wired off one of my lighting circuits so it looks like I will need to get a sparky in to drop a new line and connect it to one of the power circuits given a hairdryer would be borderline on amperage. Question; is this common practice to have shaver plugs on lightning circuits or just some cowboy wiring?

Cheers

Couldn’t the sparky connect a RCD at the mains? Then wire up a normal plug in the bathroom? . We found power sockets running off lighting during a reno , must of been relaxed certification back in the day

could be done, but due to a lighting circuit typically been 1.0mm the circuit breaker would have to be 6A - too small to run a hair dryer.

Back in the 70's and 80's when shaver sockets were common, they were usually wired off a light circuit in 1.0mm due to the small load of a shaver it would not cause any overload issues, but converting to a regular socket to run a hair dryer - run a new circuit.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2918121 24-May-2022 19:07

Yeah. Going to need to fish or pull a new cable from somewhere else.