Bathroom Circuits and installation of Fan/Light/Heater, Separate circuits?

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racerdave3

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Western Massachusetts
I am doing a remodel job and looking for some opinions/clarification. It is a large job with 3 bathrooms being installed. I am putting in a fan/light/heater/nite light assembly in each bathroom. I had initially planned on running 2, 20 amp circuits to each bathroom, 1 to satisfy the requirement of the NEC for a 20 amp bathroom circuit and one for the load of the fan light heater. I have been thinking more about this and was wondering if I could/should just pull one 20 amp circuit to each bathroom. This would probably be fine for light cord and plug connected loads such as an electric razor, but if someone were to plug a hair dryer in, with the overhead heater on, it would probably certainly be an overload condition. The second part of this question is, if each bathrom is to get a dedicated circuit for the fan/light/heater, what about sharing a 20 amp circuit for more than 1 bathroom? The code is not clear in 210.11 (C)(3) as it says "bathroom receptacle outlet(s)". Would one assume this to mean outlets in a single bathroom or outlets in multiple bathrooms?

PS....would like to hear what everyone does for the light above the vanity, do you guys normally just jump off the 20 amp circuit or do you bring a 15 amp lighting circuit in for it?
 
If you supply the fan/light/heat unit with the same circuit as the receptacle in the bathroom, most of the time that creates a 210.23(A)(2) violation due to the wattage of the resistance heat unit.
 
I just did two of those, and ran two 20 amp circuits to each bathroom - one for the GFI and one for the fan/heat unit. I wouldnt skimp on the romex here - Women + wet hair + hairdryer + the fact that women get cold easily = a breaker tripping after a minute or two at 25 amps. You could run a 12-3 to the GFi and feed out of that to the fan/light/heat switch.
 
bencelest said:
So the vanity light will be on #12 romex?
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If you're serving that entire fan/light/heat unit with a 20 amp circuit, yep. This is one of the very few excellent uses for 12/4 NM cable. Many fan/light/heat units have each section with a seperate neutral pigail inside the fan if you did want to serve the heat on a 20 amp circuit, and the fan/light/nite light with another 15 amp circuit, for instance. The wiring compartment gets really jammed up that way, though.

EDIT... crap, you said vanity light. Nevermind what I said, then.
 
With a ceiling heater in the bathroom we just run a 12/3 and call it a day. One circuit for the combo unit and the other for the rest of the bathroom.
 
growler said:
I agree, when everthing else fails " read the instruction ".
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Amen to that, I just had one where the hvac guys supplied all the fans and left no paper work on them I had to disassemble the fan to see the wattage, It definatly needs to be on its own circuit. With some hair dryers being 1800 watts there is no way you would be able to talk your way out of that with Mrs. Homeowner.The heat fan light unit I had to connect was 1450watts. I all so run a 12-3 to the bathroom and then jump to the next closest branch circuit from there.If the light needs to be gfi protected it comes off that circuit,if the next closest lighting circuit is to far the whole bath goes on #12,One bathroom to a circuit ,but not always one circuit to a bathroom .
 
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