Plague Boy wrote:
My bathroom is in a dormer. I keep my house cool (55F) most of the
winter, and heat the room I'm in with small electric heaters. The
bathroom has two wall mounted lights, with two prong unpolarized
outlets. I was running a small (600W) heater off of the light, until I
discovered that the lights run off the old knob and tube wiring in the
attic, which are partially covered in loose insulation. (!) This is the
original lighting circuit (15A)that feeds most of the overhead fixtures
installed when the house was built (c.1920).

I want new electric service, new panel, and removal of ALL the K&T
and old BX wiring in the house. Then I can INSULATE (yay!).

HOWEVER, that will not happen this year. I need to run a circuit up
to the bathroom from the basement to at least power a heater
(600-1500W). I'd like to not have to re-do it when I re-do the rest of
the wiring.

Bathroom will need, eventually: lighting circuit, an exhaust fan, a
heater, and a courtesy outlet (shaver, hair dryer etc.).

Code requires separate circuit for a bathroom heater? Only if it's
fixed? Plus, a GFCI for the courtesy outlet by the sink?

I'm wondering what the most practical solution is-one 12-2 for the
heater for now, or a 12-3 to power the heater and the courtesy outlet? I
have a GFCI receptacle and a 20A GFCI breaker. I haven't bought the
wire, because I can't decide which would be best.


In my opinion you should run enough 12/2+2 WG to run two completely
separate circuits to the bathroom. 12/2+2 is a single type NM cable
that contains a bare equipment grounding conductor, two white wires, and
two black wires with a tracer color on one of each color One circuit
will serve the convenience outlet by the basin. The other will serve an
installed bathroom heater that will be fastened in place. The heater
circuit will be GFCI protected in the panel using the GFCI breaker that
you already have. The basin receptacle will have the GFCI receptacle.
You can leave the lighting circuit alone as long as you remove the
jumpers that supply the built in receptacles in the bathroom light
fixtures. The reason that I suggest the two circuit approach is that it
is not safe to have even the occasional use of a hair dryer on the old
knob & tube wiring. An 1800 watt hair dryer is the entire ampacity of a
fifteen ampere circuit.
--
Tom Horne