How To Wire a Towel Radiator Heating Element

I am refurbishing my guest bathroom.

I have been given a heating element for a new towel radiator I am having fitted.

Could someone talk me through what I need to do to connect the electrics please, or point me to where I can get information?


Thanks

Just been reading through some other posts on bathroom projects and noticed that according to one thread //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50227 bathroom projects are notifiable jobs.

As I was also hoping to install a shaver socket in a cabinet (for charging electric toothbrush) exactly what does a notifiable job mean and involve and would both the heating element and shaver socket come under that heading.?

Yes, all work in bathrooms other than straight swaps come under part p.

You have 2 options. (well 3, but the 3rd is illegal)

1. Notify the local council's building control dept, and do the work yourself in full accordance with BS7671 and the 16th edition of the wiring regs (the standards electricians work to). The council will come to inspect when you've finished, and the work will be tested and a certificate issued if all is well.

2. Use a registered electrical contractor to do the work. He will test, inspect and notify the work for you, and issue a certificate.

3. Do it yourself and tell nobody (though i am not in any way saying this is ok. I'm sure many people who dont know about part p are breaking the law by going down this route anyway. Just bear in mind electricity kills anyone, it has no prejudices, and this route could make your house hard to sell since no certs. are available for work you carried out).



Is it posible to be prosecuted for breaking a law you know nothing about?

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse. This is not because any man is expected to know all the law, but if it was not so, every man would claim ignorance"

Thanks for the replies.

Out of interest as of what date did the part p come into force?

As crafty1289 says I have no doubt there are many people who have carried out work themselves in the past that is perfectly safe but uncertified.

They are probably still doing the same thing.

This begs the question as to how it can be proved that the work has been done after part p came into force, and not a straight replacement, and also what would happen about the lack of certificates for old work generally, say when selling?

january 2005 IIRC.

And it just so happened that when part p came into force, cable colours in the UK were being harmonised with the rest of Europe, so instead of red and black, we have blue and brown. This is the main indicator of work carried out after 2004 (when new colours were being phased in)

Thanks again.

Can't remember the last time I used/saw any cabling with red/black.

So if the work is deemed by the householder as having been carried out before January 2005, say during 2004, which would account for the current wiring colours, and is safe, there isn't much chance of anyone being able to prove otherwise, or is there?

For example, I've done quite a bit of wiring in my garage over the last ten years, non of which has been certified. It would be impossible for anyone to fix a date as to when it was done. The only issue would seem to be that if I decided to sell, and the lack of certificates became an issue, then I would need to get a qualified electrician in to test all the wiring and issue a certificate and/or carry out any remedial work.

That being the case I would still like to have info on what would need to be done for the radiator heater and additionally the cabinet lights and shaver point in the bathroom, assuming it's not illegal to provide the information or it doesn't break any forum rules.

If nothing else it will be useful if I decide to employ an electrician.

If it gets too complicated then I might have to abandon the idea and just go for a straight forward mirrored cabinet and forget the radiator element.

For the radiator you will need to find a socket that is part of the ring main, fit an FCU (aka fused spur) next to it and run a cable to a flex outlet next to the radiator. Dont forget cables must run in safe zones where they are concealed, and the heater element must be protected by a 30mA RCD. You might already have one of these in your consumer unit, protecting the socket circuit.

Cabinet lights will be wired from the lighting circuit, and the shaver socket could use the same feed, providing the cabinet lights have their own switch.

As you are bringing another circuit into the room (ring main), you must run a new 4mm² earth bond from the flex outlet to all other circuits and pipes entering the room - just go round everything and check all the bonds are in place - they should be accessible.

Thanks again.

All seems quite straighforward. I assume the flex plate will be unswitched so that the cable from the element just disappears into it and the switching is done with the FCU.?I have a couple of spare neon type I can use.

Not too sure about the bonding as I can't remember if the original pipe work has ever been bonded (I know the extension was done). Will need to check when the bathroom has been gutted.

I have RCD's at the consumer box end so that's no problem.

All the pipework is to be laid in a false wall so there won't be anything visible in the bathroom itself. The pipework itself comes through the wall to and from the kitchen so I can bond that end.

As regards lighting. I was thinking about running the cabinet lights from the power socket side as I have a spur in the kitchen not being used (going to use this for the element as well) and I was going to bring this through the wall. If I have to use the lighting circuit then the eaisiest way would be to put a junction box in the light circuit for the bathroom or kitchen and spur from there.