Wiring Questions For Small Bath Remodel

There are pros and cons to the location of the GFCI...a GFCI breaker is more expensive, but it will easily control everything you wire to it. Depending on how far away it is, it is usually more of a pain to reset it if it does ever get tripped (shouldn't happen, but certainly can). Having the GFCI device in the bathroom means, it is more visible and accessible, and you might actually test it periodically like you should, plus, if it does trip, you don't have to out in your birthday suit to reset it. Depending on where the things like light and fan are, they may or may not need to be fed from it. This means more planning to make sure you get the feed from either the line or the load side of the GFCI receptacle, should it be required. Some don't like the look of the GFCI, and a breaker can move it out of sight, as can a GFCI designed to fit into a wall box that may be more out of sight.

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Any and all receptacles in a bathroom must be GFCI protected and the one required to be within 3 feet of the sink must be on a 20 amp circuit. A single duplex is two receptacles on one yoke so the receptacle can be rated at 15 amps.

If a 20 amp circuit supplies nothing but one bathroom then the lights can be on the same circuit.

jadnashua said:

Depending on where the things like light and fan are, they may or may not need to be fed from it. This means more planning to make sure you get the feed from either the line or the load side of the GFCI receptacle, should it be required. Some don't like the look of the GFCI, and a breaker can move it out of sight, as can a GFCI designed to fit into a wall box that may be more out of sight.

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OK, so sounds like I could go with either. I'd prefer the gfci outlet as opposed to breaker merely for the convenience you mentioned.

I have a wet area approved LED can in the shower stall, a light/fan combo just outside in the ceiling, and a vanity light and said gfci outlet at the sink. From everything I've read so far, most recessed lights approved for wet locations don't require gfci protection if the manufacturer doesn't expressly require it. Does this sound right? If so, I'd think the only place I'd need gfci protection would be at the outlet itself. Am I in the ballpark?

As I understand it, that's correct, but then I'm not a pro. Properly designed devices should work fine either on or off a GFCI.

If you're regularly using high wattage devices, you may want to get a (more expensive) 20A GFCI receptacle, not that I'd expect you to have an actual 20A device, but that you might have something like say heated curlers and a blow drier running at the same time. Otherwise, it is okay to use a 15A device on that 20A circuit.