doing some electrical work

I am trying to fix up my mom's bathroom. Currently she has a fluorescent light on the wall with an outlet in the light fixture. I want to replace this light by adding a GFCI outlet then connecting a switch to the outlet that leads to a new light fixture. Would I simply add the new outlet from the wires originally going into the light, run a wire from the outlet to the switch, and then a wire to the new light fixture. I have done some electric work in the past, but never really rewired things. Any suggestions. Thanks again.

Reply to
Apsteinberg
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You need to determine where the power is. Is it at the light switch or at the light. It's not uncommon for either depending on where the power was coming from.

Reply to
HotRod

Sorry forgot to mention this. Currently the wiring is coming directly from the wall into the light fixture. I want to run this wire to a new gfci outlet then to a new light switch then to the new light fixture. So the outlet would be always on and the light would be turned on/off from the switch. Would it be this simple or am I forgetting something. Thanks again

Reply to
Apsteinberg

I am NOT an electrician. I have done some of my own wiring. I would always check code. But another question I see is wouldn't it be better to have the light up stream of the GFCI outlet so if it trips you can see to reset it? Anything down stream of the GFI will not work, so I'd also make sure nothing else, like an outlet with a clock is on the circuit after the breaker. Just something to consider

______ KaCe

Reply to
glassartist

You've got it right, and taking the switch wrom the output side of the GFCI is a good idea for bathroom stuff.

Only possible problem I can envision is if too much steam from showering gets into the light fixture and makes the GFCI trip. But why not "suck it and see", it probably won't happen.

Make sure you extend the ground wire too, if there is one.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

Was it me, I'd put the light on before the gfci, so that a gfci incident doesn't leave you standing in the dark in the bathroom with whatever tool(s) you were using in your hand.

Reply to
Goedjn

I am understand and appeciate all the feedback. Here is my main reason for the way I plan on doing it. If I put the light first with a switch before the outlet then wouldnt the outlet only work when the switch was in the on position. If this is not correct could someone please explain how I could get around this. Thanks

Reply to
Apsteinberg

The simplest way would be to have a hot, nuetral, and ground coming into the GFCI box, pigtail two wires to each, and have one set go to the gfci outlet, and another set go to the switch, and from there to the light. THe only difference from what you desccribed is that the cable going to the switch is connected before the gfci, instead of to the outlet side.

I dunno diddly about fill-ratios, but I do know that getting a GFCI and three sets of 12-AWG wires into a normal outlet-box is crowded, so you might have to use a bigger box that you normally would.

Reply to
Goedjn

I have the lights in my bath on the 'protected' side of a GFI and have never had them trip because of steam. The one thing I'd never do again is put the GFI on the switch. It wasn't a big deal at first since any time I needed something plugged in I also needed the lights. But now with so many things rechargable (toothbrush, shaver, etc.) it's a pain since there is no 'hot all the time' outlet near the sink.

Just because you are feeding the lights off the GFI doesn't mean you need to feed them off the protected side. Depending on the style of GFI there are generally several options for continuing a non-protected line out of the same box.

Mark

Reply to
Mark

If the light fixture contains an outlet, anything plugged into the outlet would be without GFCI protection.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Apsteinberg wrote:

If you want the light supplied via the GFCI you will need to run four wire cable between the lighting outlet box and the switch / GFCI receptacle box. Two of the wires bring the power to the GFCI receptacle. A jumper from the GFCI receptacle's brass colored load terminal supplies the light switch. The remaining two wires in the cable go from the silver screw of the GFCI load for the white wire and the other terminal of the switch for the black or red wire. The best cable to use for this would be the nonmetallic cable with two whites and two blacks that are used to bring AFCI protected circuits to bedrooms. Failing that you use four wire cable with White, Black, Red, and Blue. The blue is re-identified as a White to serve as the grounded current carrying conductor from the lighting outlet box to the switch / receptacle box. If neither type of four wire cable is available you could run two separate two wire cables between the two boxes or run flexible raceway and pull the needed conductors into that. In either case the box for the switch GFCI needs to be large enough for a wire count of nine wires @ 2.00 cubic inches for each number 14 AWG conductor or 2.25 cubic inches for each number 12 AWG conductor. If you use a plastic box the number of cubic inches of internal space is printed inside the back of the box. For ganged metal boxes two two and one half inch deep, three by two inch, device boxes will be fine. For the nine wires in the lighting outlet box a two and one half inch deep by four inch octagonal box should be OK. If the existing lighting outlet box is only one and one half inch deep or less you will need to change it's support to keep the front edge flush with the surface of the wall.

If the light does not include a receptacle and is not to be GFCI protected for other reasons then you only need three insulated wires between the two boxes. The black and white will bring constant power to the GFCI and the light switch and the red will bring the switched hot back to the light fixture. The white wire for the light fixture will be made up to a white jumper wire from the two spliced white wires in the lighting outlet box. That will drop the wire count in both boxes down to eight conductors. Both wire counts assume you will not use internal cable clamps. If you do use internal clamps then add one conductor volume to each count. Both counts also assume you are using non metallic cable, type MC cable, or flexible raceway that have a separate equipment grounding conductor in the cable. If you use type AC cable then you can drop the count by one conductor volume in each box were there is no Equipment Grounding Conductor within the box.

If you have any questions please ask.

Reply to
Tom Horne, Electrician

"Code says you have 2 choices for bathrooms.

#1: You can run a single 20amp circuit to feed the outlets (and only the outlets) in all bathrooms. In this case you could use 1 gfci in the first location, and protect the other outlets from it. The downfall to this is that if you trip a gfci in the downstairs, and you are in the upstairs bathroom, you have to run downstair to reset it.

#2: You can run a single 20amp circuit to feed everything in one bathroom only (outlets, lights, fans etc...), and not use that circuit in any other room. Since there is alot more hair dryers, curling irons etc being used these days, it makes more sense to run 1 circuit for each bathroom, and install a gfci in each required location, next to the basin. "

reference...

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The circuit that enters the bathroom goes to the switch first or the light fixture.? Receptacle first.,?

If it goes to the light fixture then you would need two wires and a ground from the light to the switch. The two wires would be a hot and a switch leg.

If the circuit comes in the bathroom and goes to the switch first. Then you would need 3 wires and a ground from the switch to the Light fixture.

1 wire to operate the light. 1 to keep the receptacle hot all the time the neutral and the ground.

Marty

Reply to
Tazz

Tazz spake thus:

Are you sure about this? The needle on my BS meter is twitching here.

It sounds unlikely that the electrical code would allow one to wire an outlet in a bathroom to be protected by a remote GFCI outlet *in another room*. I thought all outlets protected by ground-fault interruptors had to live in the same room as the interruptor.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Having GFCIs located in the same room as any load they protect would be too much like sense.

210.11 Branch Circuits Required. Branch circuits for lighting and for appliances, including motor-operated appliances, shall be provided to supply the loads computed in accordance with 220.3. In addition, branch circuits shall be provided for specific loads not covered by 220.3 where required elsewhere in this Code and for dwelling unit loads as specified in 210.11(C). (C) Dwelling Units. (3) Bathroom Branch Circuits. In addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section, at least one 20-ampere branch circuit shall be provided to supply the bathroom receptacle outlet(s). Such circuits shall have no other outlets. Exception: Where the 20-ampere circuit supplies a single bathroom, outlets for other equipment within the same bathroom shall be permitted to be supplied in accordance with 210.23(A).
Reply to
Tom Horne, Electrician

It's easy and cheap to do it that way, and therefore moronic not to, but code doesn't require it, no. Which is as it should be, since the proper objective of code is designed to keep you uninjured, not to keep you from being inconvenienced.

Reply to
Goedjn

Tom Horne, Electrician spake thus:

Thanks for providing that. But it says nothing about GFCI protection, so I'm not sure what to make of it. Are you saying that by remaining silent on the issue, the code is saying it's OK to rope outlets to multiple bathrooms on one GFCI-protected outlet?

I'm still skeptical, and would never do it that way. But that's just me.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

reference

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answers 3 and 4. I don think there was a change in 2005 NEC. Have to peek.

I have seen many of the older houses that have a GFCI receptacles in the Garage 10-15 feet from the panel and then they would take the protected side of the circuit into the house and that circuit would feed ONLY the receptacles in the bathrooms. Receptacles marked GFCI protected.

I would not do it that way either but ....................

Reply to
Tazz

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