Socket 1.5m from bath but outside bathroom

Your supervisor is correct.

There is no reasoning in your response. Why is he correct?

Can you touch the socket from within the bath?

No. But neither can you touch one if it where in the bathroom at the same distance so the same reasoning applies. The 3m is to do with appliance lead length so that anything plugged in cannot reach the bath rather than anyone touching the socket.

Your quotation of the regs wasn't completed, it goes on to say 'to the surrounding zones as described in these regulations' (ie 0,1,2).   Would you, for example, also give a code 2 to isolating switches placed outside above the door to the same bathroom.  There is a fairly good chance that the bathroom door is closed when in use, in fact many have a lock on the inside and even if the outlet were 3 metres away there is nothing to stop someone using a trailing lead to take power into the bathroom if they wished to. The hallway is not the special location, the bathroom is, I'm afraid I agree with your supervisor.

My understanding is that a socket outlet OUTSIDE of the bathroom may be placed as close thereto as one wishes, possibly within reach of the bath and certainly within the reach of a standard length appliance cord.


IMHO it is poor practice to install an outlet close to the bathroom door, but that is my own view and not a regulatory requirement.

The 3m limit is indeed based on cable lengths plus a bit for some arms, and is a relaxation to a UK only reg that came in between the  12th edition which like the 10th and 11th before it  only required all wiring in bathrooms to be rubber insulated (as opposed presumably to cotton..) reg 614b, but had no prohibition on sockets,  and the (new for 1955 ) 13th edition rule 405 ' no provision shall be made for  portable appliances in a room containing a bath'. Of course to put that in context this was back in an era when RCDs did not figure in domestic installations, and most plugs were unfused round pin types with un-shrouded pins small children  could touch if they curled their fingers under between plug and socket while plugging  in - they usually only did it once, if at all.

The total ban on sockets in bathrooms persisted with variations on the wording until the 16th edition conceded that in a room with a  shower cubicle that is not a bathroom (presumably an en-suite)  sockets were to be permitted outside Zone 3. (i.e 3m away)

Then in the 17th edition this was rationalised to 3m in all rooms with a bath or shower (and zone 3 was deleted).


Now, since the introduction of 'zones' the rules have been very clear that the zones stop at walls and doors, and immovable screens.

The fact that in principle someone could leave the door open and run a lead in, is therefore out of scope. After all they could (and people do) run a much longer extension lead in from another room anyway - but that is un-policeable, and more dangerous than a socket in the bathroom, as now you add a trip hazard.

Unless the socket is in a location where it will get wet from splashing, or is actually in the bathroom, and within 3m of the edge of Zone 1 it is not an issue.

And perhaps it reassures you to hear that for most of the countries of 230V world, and all of the 110V world, sockets are permitted to within 60cm of zone 1 or something similar, so long as the socket is RCD protected - and the good news is that their fatality figures are no higher than here - in the UK hair dryers catch fire in bedrooms it seems.

Pat Eardley

OK. Thanks for the reasoning behind your statement.

However, I disagree with you.

I didn't quote the whole of the reg but that still doesn't change its possible meaning. It is ambiguous and can be taken to mean what I said depending on how you read it. It's badly worded and not clear to exactly what it means. I agree, thought, that the idea being conveyed is not likely to be restricted to the position of the bath within the zones.

Regarding your point on and isolator. An isolating switch above the door outside the bathroom does not need to be at least 3m from the bath, so within regs. It is outside the zones as well. The 3m is only for sockets as described in 701.512.2 last para.

Regarding the other point. The door may be closed. But it also may be open as in a flat occupied by only one tenent who does not close the door when taking a bath as no one else is there.

Yes a trailing lead can be used from anywhere but there is a limit to what the regs can do to protect people from their own stupidity. The 3m rule is to stop someone from plugging in an appliance with its own lead. Most bathrooms this would not even occur as 3m is a very big bathroom. However, exactly the same risk is there whether you have a big bathroom with a socket less than 3m from the bath or a small bathroom with a socket in the hallway less than 3m from the bath.

In my own flat I have exactly the same situation. The socket is directly outside the door on the opposite wall. The same will be for all 24 flats in the block. Half the block is occupied by single people and the other by couples. At least with couples if one of them is stupid enough to plug the portable TV in to watch in the bath the other will likely tell them not to be so stupid. However, how many couples have one person in the bath while the other is at the mirror with the hair dryer or clippers.

This is not the first time I've come across this situation with others saying it's not in the bathroom so it doesn't count but this still does not sit well with me. We are supposed to be inspecting for potential dangers and I see this as being one.

As far as going by the "letter of the law" so to speak, I still think two things about the term "location". To me the reg 701.1 should be better worded as it can be taken to mean the actual location of the bath within the zones. Personally I think that location does not just mean "room" but includes, the area outside "when" it refers to sockets at 3m. Location can mean more than just "room". It's flexible in it's meaning depending on the context in which it's being used.

OK, worry if you must, but the accident figures tell us it is clearly not dangerous - in the whole of the UK electrocutions in the bathroom are incredibly rare, single figures per year in fact. (and none at all in some years). To put that in perspective,  remember that to keep the population in check about a million must die every year, and do, but mostly from things like heart disease, strokes and cancer. Electrocution of any kind is way down in the small figures compared to nearly everything else, and in the bath is a very small fraction of that..

mapj1


You had posted before I had finished writing my last reply so I didn't read it until then.

I get what you are saying. 

To keep the population in check we must electrocute a small percentage of the population. 

Seriously though, isn't even one electrocution per year in the bathroom enough for the IEE to take some sort of precautionary action within the regs. When the report of a politician's daughter was electrocuted in the kitchen when knocking a nail into the kitchen wall to hang up a dish rack (or something) got the IEE to start changing regs to include RCD protection for cables in wall less then 50mm etc, would this not be on the same par?

Like I say, joking aside, I get what your saying about the statistics. It's just that it doesn't sit right with me having a socket dead opposite the bathroom door. Mind you, with the requirement or RCD or RCBO protection on all sockets I suppose the code 2 can be code 3 instead.

But like everyone is saying, if you take location as being only meaning the room itself than it's no code. 

This is also a matter of protecting myself from liability if someone were to get electrocuted after my doing a periodic and producing a Condition Report that has no mention of that socket.