230 volt central heating box under bath

[CatHedger]

Hi, I’ve just taken off the side of the bath with the aim of fitting an overhead shower to the bath, and have found an electrical unit under the bath, which appears to be for the central heating system. It’s fixed to the floor, so it’s not raised, and the fact that a small ingress of water has made the floor board damp near the 230 volt unit has made me even more concerned as to whether this is safe and meets British standards. My dad told me not to worry about the bolts as amps will kill me, but I’m still concerned as can’t see any info on this under the bath. House is 5 years old. Is it ok? Looks like it’s in zone 0 as I’ve had to take side of bath off with a screwdriver, but still, there’s a leak on be copper pipes too. Doesn’t feel right. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[SJB060685]

@Murdoch can you please clarify the regulations behind electrical wiring under a bath for both the OP and myself please

 

[Murdoch]

@Murdoch can you please clarify the regulations behind electrical wiring under a bath for both the OP and myself please

Concealed behind a fixed bath panel is outside zones - so not an issue as far as BS 7671 goes

However in the world of common sense, i’m not convinced that the zone valves or the electrics should really be there - unless it was the ONLY place they could be put

Hope this helps

 

[OffshoreGas]

Not ideal, as @Murdoch says not technically against regs.

I'd ask a local sparky to come and have a look, you could make the situation quite a lot safer by having the socket box replaced with an IP65 enclosure and making sure the circuit is protected by an earth leakage current device.

 

[king of pipes]

Not ideal but not alot you can do at the moment with this virus thing going on, better to make plans to improve things when possible put the panel back before using the bath 😁 kop

 

[CatHedger]

Thank you all, a bit tricky as the bath panel cracked as tiles out in after the bath so they were too high to put in otherwise. Think I’ll proceed with the shower fitting, then rebuild a new panel (As you say) using tongue and groove - should protect it and be easy to remove. Will definitely get back to the builders tho (who built the house), glad I now have some info to go back with
[automerge]1587320004[/automerge]
I’ve taken your advice, thank you so much 😊 that is a lot better than leaving it open although it’s far from perfect

 

[Murdoch]

Thank you all, a bit tricky as the bath panel cracked as tiles out in after the bath so they were too high to put in otherwise. Think I’ll proceed with the shower fitting, then rebuild a new panel (As you say) using tongue and groove - should protect it and be easy to remove. Will definitely get back to the builders tho (who built the house), glad I now have some info to go back with
[automerge]1587320004[/automerge]
I’ve taken your advice, thank you so much 😊 that is a lot better than leaving it open although it’s far from perfect

When you build the new bath panel you should really have an access panel, retained by screws that covers the electrics and the pumps - this way you and subsequent trades will be alerted to look behind it when something goes wrong - and it will, almost certainly the motorised valves .....