Bathroom Vanity Lights... after GFCI?

CuCullin

So in my bathroom, I've got one light switch for a ceiling light, and a GFCI outlet not connected to that switch.

Since I think it would be nice to have a bit more light in the room, I'd like to put some wall-mounted vanity lights over a new wall cabinet I'm going to put in.

My thought was, off the GFCI load connection -> light switch -> new light.

Now, I know that my 2nd BR and Bathroom share a breaker. I'm pretty sure that the 2nd BR and the bathroom splits before getting into each room; so I'm fairly certain at this point that theres no load already off the GFCI outlet (haven't had a chance to investigate yet).

Are there any issues anyone could think of with me doing this?
(PS: My uncle is Local 3, and will look over before anything is done - but its about a 2 hour hike for him, so I don't want to bother him with ideas that won't work before he helps me get this wired up).

Thanks!

Andy in ATL

There is no reason that your lights need to be GFCI protected. It would be against code (currently, when was your house built?) to come off this GFCI for any kind of lighting. I suspect you have an older house and it was wired to code at the time. The only time the Gfci protected recps can supply lighting is when the circuit ONLY supplies that one bathroom. Please feel free to post back with more questions, or if that was unclear. Also, be patient. Many other pro's will soon post with their opinion.

CuCullin

Yup... old house, closed a couple of weeks ago. Now that I just need to carpet my bedroom and then I can get furniture in there, I'm prepping for other planned projects And that's actually along the lines of what I expected...Now, what of those combo light switches/GFCI outlets? I could always replace the junction box with a 2 gang and put one of those in instead, but I've never really seen them used, only saw them in stores, but I don't get how they are wired differently than the situation above. So in other words, they are likely wired differently and I just can't figure in my head how any ideas?

J. V.

Just use the existing circuit for the extra lights. If they are connected to the GFCI you will lose the lights, should you have nuisance tripping of the GFCI.
Unless you are installing high wattage fixtures and lamps you should not have any concern.

If you want to figure the current draw, do the following.

1) add up all the light wattage (use lamp not fixture watts) on the single circuit.
2) divide the volts into the total wattage = amps.

CuCullin

From the breaker, I believe I have two ceiling lights (60W max each); one in the small bedroom/office, one in the bathroom. So 120W there.

I'm considering a 3-light bath fixture, such as this:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...BNK&lpage=none

Which would make 3 additional 60W bulbs. Now I'm up to 300W, or about 2.5 amps (rough math).

Now, to throw a bit of complication in here.... like I mentioned, my office will be in the second bedroom. I don't entirely know how this is all wired yet, but I think its the same circuit. Which means a couple of PC's, total of roughly 600-900W including some audio and video hardware (work stuff). Which would be roughly 5-8 amps (rounded) if everything was on at once.

Also, I've pretty much gone entirely CFL and LED, with one exception in the living room because I had a 3-way bulb handy. So, my actual draw for these lights would likely be the CFL rating then, right? Or....

15W * 5 = 75W, roughly .65 amps - right?

Thanks for any help here