AFAICS there is nothing preventing a regular wallplate switch being used to control an electrically-heated towel rail in a bathroom provided that the switch is outside zone 2 and the installation is protected by a 30mA RCD. Have I missed anything?
Are all the electrics in the bathroom "protected" with a 30mA RCD?
Yes, the whole house is on 30mA RCDs
Answering my own question ... although there is nothing specifically against it there is the general provision that every item of equipment is to be of a design appropriate to the situation in which it is to be used, or its mode of installation shall take account of the conditions likely to be encountered. Condensation is a concern so I'll put the FCU outside the room.
It was one that I was questioned about on a NICEIC inspection a few years ago.
I answered the question correctly about the zones and then said I would not fit the switch in the same place in a hotel, youth hostel, scout hut etc as the fit for use might be different to a professionals apartment.
Condensation was not mentioned. Horse play was.
I wouldn't put such a switch in my own bathroom, because of the risk of it being operated with wet hands. More likely to cause unpleasant tingles than real danger, but it might lead to complaints.
I agree, but struggle to find a difference between wet hands in a bathroom (outside Z2) and having wet hands when walking through the front door and turning the light on after being caught in a downpour.
I put my light switches on the landing or hall walls for bathrooms and shower rooms as I find pull cord switches get dirty and do not last long with all the tugging that goes onto them.
The difference is that, in the worst case, one could envisage the inside of the switch getting damp in a bathroom either from direct condensation or (perhaps) from condensation in a ceiling void running down a conduit into the switch.
Keep the pull-chord chord clean at the lower end by threading a few inches of wooden beads onto it.
last year I replace my bathroom pull switch.It was 40 years old. There another in the house which is well over 40 years old - it was here when we moved in. Oh, you can buy replacement cords.
I have them in mine because they are allowed here and there is no risk when using them with wet hands.
In fact that doesn?t happen.
It doesn?t here.
and think what it does to your dick, as well
And you are more likely to be stood with bare, wet feet, on a wet floor, with the water (or you) in contact with a nicely earthed radiator pipe, in a bathroom.
SteveW
And the number of deaths caused by that in the UK in 2018 were?
When the first death happens supplementary bonding will be reinstated.
It will happen.
But we don't have switches where someone is likely to be stood in such conditions, due to the rules on their location. Surely, that is exactly the reason that we both have those rules and why people don't normally die of electrocution in such circumstances in the UK?
SteveW
Although I decided not to do it, switches *are* allowed in bathrooms outside Z2. Sockets are also allowed provided they're at least 3m from Z2. Both of these are subject to the general provisions I mentioned earlier.
Slight drift - one of my main concerns is that with the RCD protection that we now rely on instead of supplementary bonding is that RCDs fail. And not only do they fail they fail unnoticed in most houses.
How many people do you know that test their RCD every 6 months?
Mind you how many people have you seen that are piss wet through, naked but for a towel wrapped around them, walking from the kitchen through the living room to go upstairs?. I did not ask as I was at a
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