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Shaver socket installation

Leo James

Dear IET forum,

I'd like to get a shaver socket installed in a cupboard that used to hold an immersion heater, adjacent to the bathroom. The cupboard currently has a standard single socket, supplied direct from the consumer unit by a dedicated supply with an MCB rated at 16 amps that I presume used to power the heater. This circuit doesn't supply power to anything else, nor do I plan for it to do so.

Ideally, I'd like to use the existing wiring, rather than running the shaver socket off either a ring main or lighting circuit. Questions:-

1) is this possible?

2) would it only require someone to replace the MCB with one at a lower rating of, say, 3A and install the shaver socket?

3) would it be necessary to install a 3A FCU to protect the shaver socket? If so, would a change to the MCB also be necessary?

Many thanks

Leo

Parents
  • 0

    What do you intend to plug into the new shaver socket, and is it in a location that would require a socket with an isolating transformer? Basically shaver sockets near sinks need one, those in bedrooms an similarly dry places do not.

    However, the non-transformer kind while better for long duration loads like rechargeable toothbrushes etc (many designd are really best for intermittent loads like a shaver and can overheat a bit with a long duration load.) really ought to be on an rcd protected supply - you do not mention if the old water heater supply has an rcd or not, but in any wiring more than a few years old, it may well not..

    With those caveats, yes you certainly can.
    Mike

Reply
  • 0

    What do you intend to plug into the new shaver socket, and is it in a location that would require a socket with an isolating transformer? Basically shaver sockets near sinks need one, those in bedrooms an similarly dry places do not.

    However, the non-transformer kind while better for long duration loads like rechargeable toothbrushes etc (many designd are really best for intermittent loads like a shaver and can overheat a bit with a long duration load.) really ought to be on an rcd protected supply - you do not mention if the old water heater supply has an rcd or not, but in any wiring more than a few years old, it may well not..

    With those caveats, yes you certainly can.
    Mike

Children
  • 0 in reply to mapj1

    " and is it in a location that would require a socket with an isolating transformer? Basically shaver sockets near sinks need one,"

    Isn't that only if the socket is in zone 2? 

    That is: near a bath or shower; not a basin.

  • 0 in reply to geoffsd

    strictly, yes, but if I was putting one in for myself, as the OP is, then the that makes hand held electricity and bare skin a greater hazard is water, and it comes the same out of taps of all kinds.

    But strictly to the regs you are correct of course.

    Mike

  • 0 in reply to mapj1

    Blokes could of course grow a beard and stop wasting time. Then, for some odd reason, an image comes to mind of girls shaving their legs in the shower with an electric razor.

    It must have happened! :-)

  • 0 in reply to Chris Pearson

    however this is not perhaps the right part of the internet for those sort of images.... I understand that battery operated 'wet and dry' shavers exist for that task. They still need a 2 pin socket, either UK or Europlug style to charge though.

    Mike

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