Installation of electrical wires in the bathroom

The bathroom is often used not only for its intended purpose. We install a washing machine and water heater, use a hair dryer and electric shaver and install a sauna. That is why it is impossible to do without additional contacts in this room. However, the bathroom is not the best in terms of electrical safety. The humidity here is always high, leaks occur and drops of water regularly fall on electrical appliances. How should we place the wiring to make the use of the equipment as safe as possible?

In the old houses built according to Soviet building codes, there were no sockets in the bathrooms at all, and they were equipped with one lamp located on the wall. It is not surprising that modern residents of megacities, starting the renovation of apartments, focus their attention primarily on the bathroom. However, the electrical installation is not so easy here. Electrical wiring in the bathroom must be done with three wires with mandatory grounding. Of all the methods of laying electrical communications in the bathroom, only one is possible - hidden.That is, the wires must pass through the walls. It is forbidden to put them on the surface of the walls, as well as inside the pipes and even in special boxes.

Installing contacts is the second important step after wiring. Here the rules are even stricter. They cannot be installed in the immediate vicinity of water installations - bathtubs, sinks, toilet bowls. The minimum that should be between them is 60 cm. This zone is also limited in height and amounts to 2.25 meters. The socket itself must have a protective case (IP mark) and a closed cover. IP is indicated by two numbers, the first of which characterizes the degree of protection against dust, the second - against moisture. For bathrooms, these parameters should be 4 * 4. If the electrical wiring in the apartment is three-wire (that is, grounded), then the contacts must also be installed with a grounding contact. For additional protection, it is better to use an RCD connection, which will react to the smallest leakage current.

As for the organization of lighting in the bathroom, the requirements here are similar to the installation of sockets. Only moisture-resistant lighting fixtures are suitable here, and the circuit diagram is designed at the stage of creating a design project. The switches can only be installed at a distance from the sink and the bathtub, and it is better to remove them from the rooms. Usually, in the price of a major repair, the apartments also include electrical wiring. In fact, this part of the installation of communications is not very expensive, so you should not skimp on it. The work must be carried out by specialists who have all the necessary approvals and comply with safety requirements.