Shower (room) questions

[pncomms]

Right you reg's experts - ive pawed through mine and can't come up with an answer I am happy with. I have a shower/utility room, with a fixed cubicle shower with basin. First question: Can I run the (IP) rated shower cubicle light and ventilator fan from the ceiling isolator via an FCU, so that they both come on when the pull cord is operated. The room has a separate pull cord for the normal lights but I don't want to shower light/fan to run when this is used. Apparently the on site guide says a water heater of more than so many litres HAS to be on it's own circuit but ive got the NIC version and there is nothing in that about it, and a shower ain't really a water heater as such is it? Obviously the shower light and fan would be off the same circuit as the shower, via the FCU. Is this allowed? Second question: I have a freezer and washing machine outside zone 2 but less than 3 meters from zone 1. The clearly regs say you cannot have a socket outlet less than 3M from zone 1, obviously, but my NIC on-site guide says you can have stationary equipment such as washing machines beyond zone 2 supplied by a socket outlet or FCU??? How's that work then? It is implying that they can be beyond zone 2 not 3M from zone 1, and fed from a socket (page 191 for anyone with the NIC on-site guide). I would use an FCU anyway but am confused.
Any suggestions?

 

[telectrix]

now you're talking sense. you could also consider an occupancy sensor for the light/s.

 

[Octopus]

mmmm. It's still breaking into the shower circuit, which, although no-one has actually provided a technical reason for not doing, it is not ideal. I think I am going to use a humidistat, as someone has suggested earlier, seems like an ideal solution to me, and just put the shower light onto the other room lights. In fact, the more i think about it, the better it gets, fan will run on after the shower is used until the humidity levels drop.

I would NEVER recommend breaking into a dedicated circuit for a shower. The fewer connections you have the more reliable it will be.

Such changes should be made via the lighting circuit and as its in a bathroom could well fall under Part P and are therefore notifiable

 

[Richard Burns]

It is recommended to have high power items on dedicated circuits to avoid the inadvertent risk of overloading a circuit and to prevent high current faults impinging on low current equipment.

It is best to minimise the number of junctions in a heavily loaded (or any) cable as joints can be a source of high resistance and overheating (witness the number of over heated shower switches due to a poor connection).

If you want a shower and a fan / light to run together it is best to either have a control mechanism indirectly driven from the high power appliance (as in the current sensing switch) to control the fan /light.
It would also be possible to use a contactor (in place of the shower switch) to power the shower that is operated by switching on the light / fan.

The other alternatives are to have independent control. So if it is dark in the shower someone is likely to turn the light on and so the fan, similarly the humidistat idea operates the fan when needed (which would be when the shower is in use), a motion sensor covering the shower area could also turn on the light / fan in a similar manner.