How can I provide power to a dehumidifier in the bathroom?

Question

I have an interior bathroom which has always been damp. I want to try and do something about it and am thinking of getting a wall mounted continuous flow dehumidifier and attaching the drain pipe either into the toilet tank (easiest) or into the sink drain pipe (bit trickier), but I'm not sure how I can provide power to the dehumidifier. Obviously I don't have any sockets in the bathroom, and it only has light/fan that use electricity at the moment. I want to put the dehumidifier above the toilet which would mean it would be on the wall about 1m from the bath/shower and directly to the left and above the sink.

So my question is what is the simplest least disruptive way to get power to the dehumidifier? Can I drill a hole in the wall and feed the cable through and into the lounge and plug it in there?

Do I need to take any special precautions to make the dehumidifier legal in terms of electricity in the bathroom?

I live in the UK, as that will probably make a difference.

Answer 1

The important rule about bathroom electrics is that, apart from shaver sockets, fundamentally you can't have any power sockets in there. There may be some exceptions, but they don't apply here.

However, you can have power going into a bathroom if you hard wire the device and have a switch outside the bathroom that can turn the device off (we have a couple of heated towel rails wired this way).

So as long as your de-humidifier isn't directly above the sink, bath or shower and wired this way it should be OK.

However, with all these things consult an electrician. Even if you do end up doing it yourself getting professional advice is always a good idea.