How many Bathrooms on a circuit?

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Flash
At least you got a good sense of humor.
But remember the NEC and the AHJ is the minimum requirements. And then, if its your company & you wish to do more than the mininum, its up to you!

If it makes you worry less, then GFI protect anything you want.
Up size all wire by one.

I base my decision on real life experiences & service calls.
Dedicated 20 amp GFCI bath plugs because the blowdryers are 1960watts now.
But I haven't lost any customers from electrocution of a bath wall switch.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
To me, it need not be all one way or the other; there's nothing wrong with splitting up bath receptacle circuits, such as two in the master being on one circuit, and the rest on a second, or even guest- and downstairs half-baths on a third.

I believe that the single-circuit-for-a-whole-bathroom exception came into being for bathroom additions, where it relieves the need to run two new circuits for a single room. For new work, I still generally prefer separating lighting from receptacles, similarly to kitchens, and for similar reasons:

A) Tripping of one circuit doesn't leave a room totally without power.

2) Minimizing light flickering and dimming when turning on appliances, TV's, etc.

D) Reduction in number of AFCI devices. (This one loses steam in '02 NEC.)

To me, we're as responsible for the performance of an electrical system in day-to-day use as we are for code compliance.
 

Mike03a3

Senior Member
Location
Virginia
Jim W in Tampa said:
Also note that nothing says you cant put 2 of the bathrooms on 12-2 for the receptacles only and lights off nearby circuit and wire the 3 rd bath room on a dedicated circuit.The cost of wire is now more costly than wages.Even on cat 5 for computers the price has gone crazy.Best thing to do now when walking into a house is spend an hour or 2 to think the whole thing out.Back switching might start to be a money saver too and would join as many circuits as i can with 12-3.Good luck.

This would be my favorite answer. Have the half bath share a circuit with one of the full baths (with each having its own GFCI recept) and have the dedicated circuit run to the other full bath. Run the lights and fans off the adjacent lighting circuits. I'd be leery of having the two full baths share a circuit, simply because they are more likely to have a heavy load (my wife in one and daughter in the other, each with a curling iron, hair dryer and various other indispensable female accessories.) The half bath is far less likely to have much load, if any, in most houses.
 

Jim W in Tampa

Senior Member
Location
Tampa Florida
Its a design issue and if the customer can afford it i will gladly run HR to each and have had some master baths that needed 3 on its own.Also rather see each bedroom on its own.With 12-2 now at 40 cents a foot they better have deep pockets.Nec is the min. as we all know.If its a track home you just get the min..
 

e57

Senior Member
This is part of the conversation I had with the boss about this.... And what generated this OP....

Normally~~~~~ I do it one of a few ways as code allows. (At that Job) I was running short on circuits… And paths to get to the garage. So was an exception to my norm. A rare, but allowable by code case.
Normally:
One circuit to master, with no lighting! (As most are built for double occupancy…)
Powder rooms or guest baths (rare use baths) together only if feasible due to proximity. Lighting from adjacent rooms….
One each for regular use baths, with lighting if less than 50% of the circuit as code demands per 210.23(A)(1) and (A)(2).
What-ever the bid says…..

If you would like it as a company policy, that’s easy, not a problem, so long as it is in mind in the bid as such… (At that Job) would have been 5 circuits….

(In our e-mail exchange we also talked about GFI's on the lighting)

As for GFI’s and Fluorescents, that is quickly fading into the past. Ballast and GFI’s have changed in technology in the last 5 years that the nuisance is rare… However, when working in SF with either low ceilings, or lighting near tubs, GFI’s can be required, not by code, but at the discretion or ‘firm request’ of the inspector. (It’s not even gray area, no code exists, but they have done this for quite a long time now. Not that they enjoy the power enforce their whim and loath debate, as they do, they just feel it is a safety issue.) So normally I set these up to be GFI’ed, just in case.

Mark Heller

I'm not sure if it were at this forum, or another, but there are other people thinking the same about lighting on GFI too. As you can see above, I am sometimes ASKED to GFI lighting by our inspectors here. I tell the inspector that I'll put it on my billing as thier "request".
 
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