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I am remodeling my basement and have a bedroom connected to a bathroom. Between them is a walk-in closet. A door leads from the bedroom to the closet, and another door from the bathroom to the closet. I'd like to have a 3 way at each door, one inside the bedroom and the other inside the bathroom. It's easiest for me to wire them to a 15 amp lighting circuit. However, I'm unclear as to what the code requirements are in this situation as current codes for fixtures and outlets in bathrooms have to be on a 20 amp circuit. Would the attached configuration pass a code inspection, or would I have to put this on a 20 amp circuit because one of the switches is in the bathroom? (I understand the 20 amp circuit would be the safest way to go - I just don't want to do the extra work if I don't have to). Thanks for the help. enter image description here

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Current Code has very particular requirements for bathroom receptacles i.e. dedicated and 20A. This does not apply to bathroom hardwired loads. So we can avoid diving into that complexity.

The word "outlet" is ambiguous because NEC refers to everything as an outlet lol.

A hardwired load can be 15A or 20A if that's suitable for the loads. It can be on any circuit (except for certain circuits which are required to be dedicated to a different task, such as kitchen receptacles, garage receptacles, laundry room receptacles, bathroom receptacles, furnace, water heater, etc.)

This is also true of bathroom hardwired loads. They can be on any circuit not dedicated to something else. (and the above complexity that we're ignoring relates to putting them on bathroom recep circuits, which is useless here).

I imagine that for simplicity, you want to have the bathroom light/fan and the closet light on the same circuit. That is fine, as long as it is NOT a bathroom receptacle circuit.

It doesn't matter if the switches are in the bathroom.

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  • Thanks a million for responding. So the wiring diagram I have would be okay - is that the takeaway? Apr 17, 2021 at 20:51
  • Yeah, looks fine to me. Make sure to keep the 3-way neutral entirely separate from other neutrals in the junction box. I'd even re-mark them with gray electrical tape so they are distinctive. Bonus points: fit a physical divider in the box to enforce the separation... or even bring that 3-way circuit into a different junction box altogether, if you can stand the aesthetics of having 2 cover plates. Apr 17, 2021 at 21:05
  • Thanks a ton. This makes my life a lot easier, though I think I'll be losing out on the bonus points. :-) Apr 17, 2021 at 23:41

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