400W Heater off lighting circuit.

[2bran8]

Hi Guys,

First post, long time lurker! I'm a one-man-band domestic electrician in Mid-Wales, all Part P work, I'm with Elecsa. Anyway, couldn't get through to technical support this late on Friday so here's my problem:

A client wants heat in their bathroom but the house has been renovated to a high standard & the only access to anything other than the U/S lighting circuit or Immersion would mean floor up, chases etc.

The specced heater is a 400W convection jobby, the lighting circuit is on a 5A MCB, 30mA RCD on the Main Switch, there are literally only 3 lighting points on the circuit (one bed tiny cottage), I'd put the heater on a 3A double pole switched spur, anybody see anything wrong in any of that? Can't see it can be a problem when we put 500W floods on lighting but I've just not seen heat on a light circuit before.

Thanks, Bran

 

[londonlec]

Why would there be a difference between a 500w floodlight and a 400w heater?

A Watt is a Watt. Do the sums

 

[keniff]

what is a what

 

[tbs1983]

Nothing wrong electrically, would just be considered bad practice by some but in my opinion as long as its labelled up at consumer unit and its wired to bs7671 i see no problem. At the end of the day 230v x 6A = 1380watts, even if your 3 lighting points are 100w lamps you still have over 1Kw to play with, why not use it.

 

[Farmelectrics]

As above its 400w just like adding a security light outside

 

[sythai]

Nothing wrong with that chap..... many a time have run a 400w towel rail element off the lighting circuit when need be:christmastree1:

 

[MDJ]

Why would there be a difference between a 500w floodlight and a 400w heater?

A Watt is a Watt. Do the sums

One lights the path and the other lights your smokes haha

 

[Geoffsd]

Well, that's a relief. Some sense.

The other day it was the end of the world when a boiler was found connected to "lighting" circuit.

 

[ziggless]

wouldn't be a problem mate.

 

[2bran8]

Thanks everyone. I was happy with it electrically, I thought I might be missing something in the regs. If I'm totally honest I mentioned it to a builder I sometimes work with & he said "hmm, don't think you're allowed to do that" which sent me running to the OSG but couldn't see anything either way so rang tech support. To be fair to Elecsa they rang me back at 5 something on a Friday which is a pretty good service & the assessor said crack on, or words to that effect.

Moral of the story is trust your maths not your mates! Anyway, thanks for all the replies & sorry if this is a re-post, no the best with the old internet forums.

tbs1983 I'm just round the corner from you in Llanbrynmair.

 

[MDJ]

Don't mention builders tonight bud, I was happy for a minute hehe

 

[Engineer54]

They have been fitting cieling combined light and infa-red heater fittings for donkey's years!! Can't remember the wattage, but probably around the 500W mark.

Do they still make those fittings, can't say that i've seen them around for a while now, probably gone out of fashion, but they are still available over here in different forms, such as 2 or 3 heat lamps (switched by a pull cord) combined with a standard central lamp...

 

[Silly Sausage]

Cracks me up this.
Because it's called a 'Lighting' circuit, there's such a debate about adding a non 'Light' load?
Passes the time I suppose.

 

[ipf]

Remember the old circular lights with the heating bar round, usually in bathrooms. Wow!.They would be frowned upon these days.

 

[keniff]

I was feeling frivolous one day and connected a doorbell tranny to a lighting circuit