as for gfi?... check your local electrical codes first! my bathroom and darkroom are fully protected... why take a chance over saving a few bucks?
Salmo22: My last darkroom was smaller than yours, but had over 20 outlets. Sometimes most had something plugged into them, ready to use. The outlets and lights were all on one 20 amp GFCI breaker in the fuse box. It would have been better planning to have two independent circuits in the darkroom, but not doing so never caused any problems. The darkroom before that one had a separate 30 amp circuit for an air conditioner and possible future use. I agree that installing 20 amp wiring once is much better than updating to it later. Semi-permanent improvements to a building should allow for whatever future use one can foresee.
6 feet from edge of sink to any electricity
arms length
Tin Can
I built my darkroom to code, even had the panel and wiring run to it done by the company industrial electrician (and yes, that business was classified as a heavy industry due to its integral mill with 880 incoming voltage). Wanted ample power for my own shop tools too, in an adjacent section. I did all the minor wiring and fixtures myself. I knew how to do the rest; but in this city, any kind of shop or chemical business license per se is subject to fire dept inspections should they choose to do so. Normally, it's just a shake-down: pay an annual fee, and nobody ever shows up to check anything. That's why all kinds of terrible fires occur in makeshift warehouse art colonies or disguised meth labs. Plus half of the building inspectors are corrupt and expect a bribe, just like in most big cities. But I got lucky at the start and had an honest young inspector particularly intrigued in how I was doing things because he was planning on making his own darkroom.
To pile on your options, I plan on just putting in a combo AFCI/GFCI breaker in my panel for my darkroom circuit. This protects all the outlets from both arc faults (the ones that cause fires) and ground faults (the ones that shock you). These breakers are expensive but seem worth it to me, especially having insurance against arc faults since I'm doing the work myself, basically makes the risk of electrical fire nonexistant.
I have a separate 20A circuit for my enlarger that I shut off when not used. There is a DeVere power stabilizer plugged into this outlet and the enlarger lamped at 1000 W is plugged into the stabilizer. There are two other 20A circuits on GFI outlets, one for the chiller/film dryer and one for the rest of the darkroom. On this circuit is a 4x5 LPL enlarger with one 250 W lamp. The central AC is on a separate feed to the room. Darkroom is 8' x 11' and has 5 LED cans and one strip for general lighting. There is a 60A 220 breaker that feeds this, and a second 60A 220 breaker that feeds the washer/dryer, plate burner (on it's own 20A breaker circuit), dry mount press and upstairs lights/outlets. I'd check with an electrician about local codes.
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