Is it ok to use two of the three existing 12/3 wire?

Hi,
(skip to the last paragraph if you're in a hurry)
I'm remodeling the third of the three baths in the house and am doing some electrical re-arrangement. I have a similar issue with this third bath as the second, wherein there is or was an existing light/vent/heater combo that has to be replaced. I would replace with the same, but all I could find for the second bath and this one are cheap-looking plastic units. I find that odd to begin with, that I can find nice looking bronze or brushed nickle finish for light/vent combo, but only really cheap-looking heat/light/vent combos.
For the second bath, I gave up looking and installed only the light/vent combo. I'm about to do the same for this last bath but want to check if my wiring technique used in the second bath was acceptable, code-wise. There was a double switch that controlled either the vent or heat right next to the john. The light switches for the unit were on opposite walls.
The new light/vent-only unit I installed only required two-wire and one switch for the vent. So, I put a blank space filler where the second switch was and used only two of the three wires in the 12/3 existing cable. I capped off the ends of the unused red cable then wrapped in electrical tape. Was that ok to do ?
Thanks for advice on the subject...

Thats fine.

When I wire new construction I always run 14/3 to the light in the bath and just wire nut the unused ends. I do this because I got a lot of callbacks from new the homeowners wanting exhaust fans instead of just a light a few months later and it saves me time.

-rick

Thanks for your input Rick.
Interesting time saver on your part. I wish I had
the experience that you all do sometimes for ideas like that.
I'm grappling with another issue right now for this bath. I need an extra
outlet to the left of the new vanity. There was only one outlet at a double
sink vanity on the right wall and these days with electric toothbrushes and hair dryers, I need another. Problem is, where the vanity sits is a small section of the house that was "notched" out beyond the normal outside
wall of the house so that this notch goes all the way out to the end of the roof overhang. Most houses in this area have about a three foot roof overhang and I guess they got cheap when building this house. I wish they would have just made the whole house three feeting longer. Anyway, it's virtually impossible to run a new line to that outside wall from the attic. The outlet to the right is on a gfi breaker and it would be good to continue off of that one, but it's a middle of the sequential run and so I'm not sure if it's better to do all the cabling necessary to go from that one or to run a new cable from the attic down the adjacent wall "inside the roofline", then around the corner onto that back wall. There is an old line just above the bathroom that's tied off in the attic that was for the old electric hot water heater. We now have gas, so I could connect to that with a junction box and come down. Problem with that idea is that I think that cable is 10/2 rather than 12/2 and is probably connected to a 30 amp breaker. I could switch out the breakers to a 20 and continue that run with 12/2 as I understand that's ok for code. Not sure if that's a good idea or not though.
Accepting my limitations, I'm going to call an electrician to do this one. Might be some easier way to get to it than what I'm thinking.
Thanks again.

jeff_bathroom said:

The outlet to the right is on a gfi breaker and it would be good to continue off of that one, but it's a middle of the sequential run and so I'm not sure if it's better to do all the cabling necessary to go from that one or to run a new cable from the attic down the adjacent wall "inside the roofline", then around the corner onto that back wall. There is an old line just above the bathroom that's tied off in the attic that was for the old electric hot water heater. We now have gas, so I could connect to that with a junction box and come down. Problem with that idea is that I think that cable is 10/2 rather than 12/2 and is probably connected to a 30 amp breaker. I could switch out the breakers to a 20 and continue that run with 12/2 as I understand that's ok for code. Not sure if that's a good idea or not though.
Accepting my limitations, I'm going to call an electrician to do this one. Might be some easier way to get to it than what I'm thinking.
Thanks again.

Click to expand...

1. Bathroom outlets need to be on a 20A circuit that is just for bathroom outlets, if it is just used for outlets it can be shared with multiple bathrooms. Or you can have the entire bathroom one one 20A circuit, including the lighting if it is not shared with other bathrooms.

2. GFCI outlets are inexpensive, so do go to any extra hassle to feed off of the outlet that is there. If it is easier to drop from a different point such as a switch box do that, and install another GFCI.

3. You could use the 10 gage if it is moved over to a 20 breaker. It's fine to do, as long the you make proper connections and they are contained in a junction box that remains accessible.

Jamie

Hi Jamie,
I called an electrician for this one. Thought I'd see what they think is the best choice. Maybe they'll see something I didn't. I appreciate your input.
Thanks !

skip to the last paragraph if you're in a hurry

Click to expand...

Uhhhhh....there's only one paragraph.

I hear ya and admit I'm long-winded, but there were paragraphs when I typed it. It got un-paragraphed, or maybe de-paragraphed...telegraphed.
Anyway, the electrical guys came today and found that they could get the
wire up the outside wall into the attic without going through adjacent walls.
So, that's what I was looking for. They were pretty reasonably priced too, so
I gave em a hefty tip.

Thanks everybody for all of your help ! Really appreciated your advice.