Special environments: bathrooms, outdoors, EV, PV and batteries
How context-specific rules add to ordinary circuit rules when the environment or equipment creates additional risk.
Uitleg
This page summarizes AREI Book 1 rules for context-specific situations. The main references are chapter 7.1 for baths and showers, chapter 7.22 for charging equipment, chapter 7.112 for household PV installations, and the general diagram and protection rules in 3.1.2, 4.2 and 4.4.
Looking for the basics of consumers, AC/DC, PV or EV chargers? See Electricity basics and Consumers.
In short
- Special environments do not replace ordinary rules; they add to them.
- Bathrooms use zones and additional protection requirements.
- EV charging points require a dedicated circuit per connection point.
- PV and batteries must be connected logically as sources in the dossier and diagram.
- Outdoor installations and outbuildings require attention to external influences, mechanical protection and voltage drop.
One basic rule: context changes the assessment
A socket in a living room, a socket in a bathroom zone, an outdoor socket and an EV charger may look similar on paper. AREI does not treat them the same because the environment and use change the risk.
| Context | Additional questions |
|---|---|
| Bathroom | Which zone contains the point? Which IP rating and RCD protection are needed? |
| Outdoors | Is the equipment suitable for moisture, mechanical loads and weather? |
| EV | Is there a dedicated circuit per connection point? Which RCD and overcurrent protection? |
| PV | Where does the source connect? Which inverter, protection and dossier documents are needed? |
| Battery/backup | Which parts remain powered, and how is safe isolation shown? |
Bathroom and shower
Chapter 7.1 divides rooms with a bath or shower into zones. Those zones determine which appliances, sockets, controls, lighting and protection methods are permitted.
The diagram does not need to spell out every legal bathroom detail, but the situation plan must make the locations clear. When a point is in or near a zone, its position on the plan is essential.
A bathroom point is not an ordinary point
If a socket, light, switch or appliance is in or near a bath or shower zone, its location and protection must be explicitly defensible.
Zones begin with the real room
The bath, shower, fixed water outlets, permanent walls and doors together determine the room and its zones. A shower door can act as a closed permanent wall when it closes sufficiently. A loose bath screen does not: only a permanent wall changes the dimensions.
For a shower, zone 1 runs from the finished floor or shower tray to 2.25 m, except where the highest attachment point of the fixed water outlet is higher. The space below a shower tray belongs to zone 1, not zone 0.
Equipment, IP rating and existing parts
A bathroom cabinet with lighting or a socket, a fixed appliance or a socket in a zone must meet the requirements for that location. This includes the required IP rating and protection against electric shock. A fixed low-voltage appliance in zone 1 must be intended by its manufacturer for that location and use.
Only equipment supplied by safety extra-low voltage may have IP00, and only where table 7.1 allows it. Otherwise the IP rating from table 7.3 applies.
From 1 March 2025, existing parts follow the new chapter 7.1 rules, with the exceptions in Parts 6 and 8 where retention is expressly allowed. Some existing appliances for domestic hot water and other existing arrangements may therefore remain under conditions.
Boxes and controls
A switch can be a control device. Junction, coupling and distribution boxes are not generally forbidden in zones 1 and 2, but they are forbidden in zone 0. A socket in zone 2 supplying an appliance must itself comply with the requirements for that zone.
Electric vehicle charging points
For charging equipment, AREI is concrete: each connection point gets a dedicated circuit. The connection point is the endpoint of the charging equipment, such as a charging socket or vehicle connector.
A charging installation may not be connected through a socket on the fixed electrical installation. This makes EV charging different from an ordinary fixed consumer.
RCD protection and DC fault currents
Each dedicated AC circuit must be individually protected by a residual-current protective device with an operating current of no more than 30 mA.
The connection point must also remain protected when an insulation fault creates a disturbing DC component. A standard type A RCD therefore is not automatically sufficient when the charger can produce DC fault currents.
Possible solutions include a type B RCD, or a type A or F RCD combined with residual DC detection such as RDC-DD or 6 mA DC detection. Check the charger's technical sheet because some chargers include this detection and others do not.
Overcurrent protection
Each dedicated circuit must have suitable individual overcurrent protection. That protection may be in the board, in the charging equipment or split between both, as long as the complete protection is effective.
If several connection points are not used at the same time, a common overcurrent device is allowed only when it protects every connection point sufficiently. Its rated current must not be higher than the lowest rated current of the connection points involved.
Installation and environment
Charging equipment must be protected against the external influences of its location. Outdoors, AREI requires at least IP44 and additional measures against reasonably foreseeable vehicle impact.
Charging equipment inside a building may require an electrical emergency stop in certain situations. This requirement does not apply to charging equipment that forms part of a dwelling's electrical installation.
In Condui
Draw an EV charger as its own system: supply, protection, cable, phases and physical location. This prevents it from disappearing into the dossier as an ordinary socket.
PV and battery
AREI explicitly includes sources such as photovoltaic panels, inverters and batteries in the diagram requirements. The one-line diagram must show how the source connects electrically to the installation, and the situation plan must show its location when it appears on the diagram.
For household PV installations up to 10 kVA, the dossier must also contain instructions, safety information and technical references for the installed equipment.
Ordinary consumer
Consumes energy from the installation.
- Power normally flows in one expected direction.
- The diagram focuses on protection and load.
- The situation plan shows the physical location.
Source or storage
Can put energy into or take energy from the installation.
- Power flow may be less obvious.
- Protection and isolation must be clear.
- Dossier documents are important for intervention.