Can I add an electrical outlet to a light switch in a bathroom without overloading the circuit?
Question:I have a bathroom with a double light switch (one for the light, one for the exhaust fan), but no outlet. I want to add an outlet where the wiring comes into the light switch (for my wife to use her blow dryer, curling iron, etc). Is this possible to do? Oviously I still need to keep both switches.
Answers:
new installations call for a seperate circuit for the bathroom receptacle (20 amp) because of high wattage hair dryers, etc. Must also be GFI protected to protect you from shock. It does nothing regarding overloads...
Make sure your switch junction box has a neutral wire (white) in it also, or its not gonna work. Wirenut into your common hot that feeds both switches. Wirenut onto the white wire thats hopefully there. extend these with the ground to your new outlet. install a GFCI receptacle, and basically see what happens. it might work fine, or maybe trip a breaker. If it trips a breaker when you use it, you will have to run another circuit from your panel. And plug a nite-lite into your new receptacle..I'll probably get a bad answer for this one, but you wanted to know...
Best way to find out, is find what circuit breaker is used for the bathroom and see how many things are also on the circuit. A 15 amp circuit can hold 1800 watts so add up the watts on the circuit if close or more then the wattage you will need to add a new line.
Does not address code...
Depends what else is on the circuit...
Find the breaker and turn it off - go around with volt meter to see what gets turned off... add up the amps for each appliance that was turned off and subtract from the breaker value ie 20 amps...this is the remaining usable amps left on that circuit. Now check the hair dryer or curler to see how many amps they will use if it all adds up to less than the breaker value (usually 20 amps) then you are good to go...
If its close then any spikes will overload circuit and casue breaker to trip.
the short answer is yes. you will want to use a cut in box and an gfci recepticle. the breaker will protect the circiut at it's rating. if it trips then you have to either turn some things off and try again or you can try to split the load onto separate circuits.
Illegal, codewise. Bathroom receptacles have to be on a 20 amp circuit by themselves, or sharing with another bathroom. Must be GFI protected.
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