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.

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

On Sep 26, 11:12 pm, 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!).

Just curious, why do you feel it necessary to remove the BX?

nate

N8N wrote:

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!).

Just curious, why do you feel it necessary to remove the BX?

1. It's 50 years old and the insulation seems crumbly.

2. The whole house needs remodeling. If I have to open up walls,
etc, I want to do it before I remodel, plus it is probably easier
to pull wires *before* I insulate.

3. The current BX has no ground wire. Although the ground on the
armor seems to work OK on some outlets, others have no available
ground. It seems possible that the BX is spliced into the K&T,
which is spliced into the BX down in the basement, where they
SHEETROCKED OVER the boxes they used for the connections.

As an aside, I'm thinking of using armored cable for the rewire,
rather than Romex. Any thoughts, anybody? I've lived here 40
years, I may be here another 40- I'm not "flipping" this house g.

40 years of electrical starvation may explain why I want lots of
power.