Finishing rewiring the upstairs and was told that the bathroom had to be on its own 20a circuit. No problem did my run but uhoh it's a little short well by a couple feet. Ugh that 12 gauge wire was a pain to snake through all joists holes that once hade porcelain tubes. So I thought ok I can pop a utility outlet and pigtail from there but nope! That gfci outlet must be dedicated circuit and can only have loads 10A or less on that circuit . Am I sol? Could I forego the pigtail at the hallway and make it the first in the circuit series and be in code?
Electrical – 1920 rowhouse project – rewiring
electrical
Related Solutions
It depends on the power rating of the water heater. From an earlier question, I see that you live in China, so your electrical supply is 220 VAC/50 Hz. That means that the maximum power draw on a 10 A circuit is 2.2 kW (220 V * 10 A). In general, you should draw less to allow a safety margin, if the water heater uses more than about 2 kW you should get it rewired because you'll be coming close to the maximum rating of that circuit.
Note: I'm not even considering the presence of other appliances on that bathroom circuit (lights, electric razors, electric toothbrush chargers, etc.).
Based on the additional info in the question, if you only use the 1000 W and 1500 W modes on the heater, the existing wiring should be sufficient. If there's a way to prevent people from using the highest setting (like mounting the whole heater in a box where it can't be changed inadvertently), you should be OK.
Sizing conductors and breakers
Almost all wire you can buy will be rated at 600 volts, so you won't have to worry about voltage when sizing wires. What really matters is current. Your wires will be sized to carry enough current for the load, and your breaker will be sized based on the wire used.
When installing electrical devices, it's always a good idea to check the manufacturers installation instructions (PDF). In this case, it has this to say...
As the table shows, you can connect up to 24 amperes worth of heaters to a single circuit. However, if you do this, you'll have to use 10 AWG conductors and a 30 amp breaker. If you only want to use 14 AWg, you can only put 12 amperes worth of heaters on a circuit.
Number of conductors
Since these are 240 volt heaters, you'll only need two conductors (plus a grounding conductor). If you're going to use nonmetallic sheathed cable (Type NM), you'll need AWG/2 with ground, not AWG/3 with ground cable.
Related Topic
- Electrical – How to resolve tripping problems with CAFCI
- Electrical – Rewiring part of a circuit, how to properly terminate old branches
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- Electrical – Can i run power to the workshop using an open existing 30amp breaker
- Electrical Codes – Dedicated Circuit for Sub Zero Refrigerator Requirements
- Electrical – Power Supply Req: Need 20A 240V
Best Answer
Put a junction box in a location the wiring can reach. Make a splice inside the junction box to get to where you need to go. Splices are no big deal if done right - really.
This location must be accessible without dismantling any part of the house. So it can't be behind trim or drywall. But putting it inside a closet with floating shelves is fine. If all the person has to do is empty out a closet and lift out a shelf.
The junction box will have a blank cover, unless it's in the bathroom.
Or, if it really makes you bat crazy to have a blank cover, then fine. Use a deep box at least 20 cubic inches. Make the bathroom splice and push it into the back of the box. Then bring over another circuit and attach a receptacle to that circuit. That's allowed as long as the box has enough cubic inches to handle all the wires. Don't mix the neutrals.