Electrical Heater In Bathroom Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[scotts1]

Hi

I currently have a flat with no central heating and i intend to install an electrical heater in my bathroom which gets very very cold! I dont want to use a towel heater as it wont be powerfull enough. I intend to run a spur into a cuboard, not in the bathroom, and put an rcd switch socket on the end. in the bathroom i then want to hang an electrial heater on the wall and run the cable through the wall to the cuboard and plug it into the new socket. can you see any issues with this??

[ericmark]

Any plug that relies on pins for the earth connection could cause a problem. A risk assessment when used anywhere but a bathroom would consider it to be acceptable but in a bathroom I would want to be very sure the earth is sound so would not use a plug and socket.
As to law as soon as you connect a heater to the wall it is fixed so plugging in outside the bathroom does not remove the need for Part P.
The heater would need to be of a type approved for use in a bathroom.
So it is unlikely should anything go wrong that you could escape manslaughter charges. Having said that my parents had a one bar electric heater plugged in to a socket in the loft for 30 years until central heating was fitted and no one was injured. And there must be 1000's of Heath Robinson DIY jobs around the country which don't comply with law or regulations and do not kill anyone. However you asked if anything was wrong and sorry yes it is unlikely to comply with regulations/law. It could of course pass all tests but with the test equipment costing £750+ some how I don't think it will be tested if you fit it.

So question is if it is worth the risk and if it were me and my daughter wanted it fitting in her house I would refuse and it would have a heater specially designed for a bathroom or nothing. Plus of course it would be tested.