Leccy shower pull cord switch location.

[Davey]

My Dad's bathroom has an electric shower over the bath. The bathroom had a standard rectangular bath with shower curtain and the pull cord switch was at the other side of the shower curtain to the bath, fixed to the ceiling.

They had the bathroom refurbished a while back and the bath was replaced with a corner bath and glass shower panel, which now leaves the pull cord in the area above the bath itself.

Is this a safe place to have a pull cord swictch according to the regs or should it be moved? Ideally I could do without moving it as there will likely be little slack in the wiring to be able to move it, but safety comes first with electrics around water.

Cheers!

¬ Davey

[Stuart B]

Does this help

-- Any posting using my name and/or e-mail address but other than by newsindividual.net is not being posted by me and should be disregarded . Remove NOSPAM to reply by e-mail

[John Rumm]

Uncanny that, I just finished an update to:

(so the answer is no - the switch should not be reachable from the bath anyway - and in particular if your ceiling is less than 2.25m then it is actually now in Zone 1 where it really does not want to be!)

[Dave]

I am confused here John, the OP talks of a pull switch. I assume this is a cord coming from a rose mounted switch in the ceiling of the bathroom and it has a plastic insulator close to the switch, which prevents any chance of a shock from a damp cord. Like my power shower has.

The diyfaq mentions an isolation swith, preferably with an indicater light in it.

Is the OP's swich a high current switch, doing the same job that is in the diyfaq and is the shower an electrically heated source fed by cold water, or is it a pump assisted one, with a switch similar to mine?

I need to know, as my switch cord can go either side of the shower screen. The rose mounted switch on my ceiling can't be touched from my zone 1 though.

That looks as clear as mud, so I'll wait to see what you make of it.

Dave

[John Rumm]

It don't stop steam and water spray from getting into the switch body though, which is one of the issues. Note also that talk peeps like me could easily reach the body of the switch in a situation like this in most modern height bathrooms.

Indeed...

I am guessing the former, but he did not make it absolutely clear. (Thinking about it, I will add a section on shower pumps to the wiki)

In reality the situation is similar; functional switching for both types is usually provided on the appliance - and isolation on a separate switch.

Ideally the switch needs to be in zone 2 or outside. Somewhere you can't reach it from in the shower, and somewhere its not going to get wetter than it is designed to be.

Your message or the wiki? (the latter is still a work in progress on that article - so not unexpected!)

[Andrew Gabriel]

The FAQ would be wrong then. The isolation switch must have a _mechanical_ means of indicating the on/off state. An electrical means of indicating the on/off state (such as a light) is not required (and in some cases, not wanted).

[PeterC]

I have 2 switches in the bathroom:

light switch - this could, in exceptional circumstances, be hit by a spray from the shower (hasn't happened in 40 years

shower switch - I put this in in such a way that the /cord/ can (just) be reached low down from the bath but the switch can't be sprayed uless the shower head is taken outside the curtain and held round a corner. In that position the spray could hit the switch if it were outside the bathroom but near the door.

I'm tall enough to be able to touch a 2.3m ceiling with my clenched fist but reaching the switch from the bath would carry a greater risk of slipping over.

[John Rumm]

Incomplete is the word you are looking for - I have only been tarting this article for the last couple of days ;-)

Indeed - I will add that. Same applies to fan isolators IIRC as well.

For showers its probably neither here no there. For things like towel rails on pull switches its handy to have an easy to see "on" indication. Most of the mechanical flag switches are high current and hence rather loud and clunky.

[Dave]

Here is my set up.

I tapped off from the upstairs ring and took a 2.5 mm feed to an isolating switch, by wiring under the bathroom, landing and cupboard floors and coming up into the hot water / airing cupboard. The isolating switch is fused at 5 Amps. Then this fused supply goes back under the floor and goes up to the ceiling mounted pull switch, so that you can stop the pump running. It is this swich that now bothers me. I suppose I could move the switch into the loft to comply and just have a cord coming out of the ceiling through a small grommeted hole.

Then in the loft it is. Unless you come back with any other ideas.

I was refering to my post. I made it around midnight and I was very tired.

Dave