Electrical Sockets in Your Spanish Home — Plan Them Once, Thank Yourself Forever

When people think about renovating, sockets are rarely the exciting part. You think about tiles, kitchens, bathrooms, maybe lighting. Sockets are an afterthought. And then you move in, and you’re crawling around with extension leads trying to charge your phone on one side of the bed, or you’re unplugging the kettle every time you want to use the toaster.

It doesn’t have to be this way. And fixing it after the fact — when the walls are plastered and everything is done — is expensive and annoying. So here’s how to think about it before the work starts.

Two types of electrical points worth knowing about

Before getting into rooms, it helps to understand that not all sockets are equal.

Standard sockets are for everyday use — charging gadgets, lamps, the vacuum cleaner, whatever you need day to day. These are what most people think of when they think “socket.”

High-load connections are for appliances that draw serious power — the hob (which can run up to 7kW), the oven, the dishwasher, the washing machine. These need heavier cabling and their own circuit breakers. They’re not really plug-in sockets in the traditional sense — often it’s a hardwired connection or a specialist outlet — but they need to be planned for in the same conversation.

Wet-area sockets are a third category: anything near water needs to be moisture-protected and, critically, on its own RCD (residual current device, or differential circuit breaker). This is a safety issue, not just a building code issue. A standard breaker won’t necessarily protect you from electrocution in a wet environment — an RCD will.

The kitchen

This is where you need the most sockets, and where people most often don’t have enough. Think about everything that might sit on or near the worktop: kettle, toaster, coffee machine, microwave, food processor, phone charger, laptop if you work from the kitchen island or breakfast bar.

And don’t forget the appliances that are hardwired or on dedicated circuits: hob, oven, extractor, dishwasher, fridge. These all need to be accounted for in the electrical plan before any walls are closed up.

The living room

The classic mistake here is putting all the sockets along one wall, near the TV. Then you sit down on the sofa and realise the nearest socket is four metres away.

Spread them around the perimeter. Put them near wherever you’re likely to sit — sofa, armchairs. A nice detail that works well: position them low on the wall, below eye level, so they’re accessible but not visually dominant. And think about where the TV will go — if you can cluster the TV, media unit, and any aerial or cable outputs behind or below where the screen will hang, you keep all the wiring hidden and tidy.

Bedrooms

Both sides of the bed. Not one side — both. At minimum two sockets per side, ideally three or four. One for a bedside lamp, one or two for charging phones and other devices overnight. If you want to be clever about it, put one set at floor level for a lamp on the bedside table, and another set at table height for devices.

Then, just like the living room, scatter a few more around the rest of the room — for a vacuum cleaner, a fan, whatever you might need. You’ll use them.

Bathrooms

At minimum, one moisture-protected socket near the sink. This is for the hairdryer, electric toothbrush, razor, and whatever else is part of your morning routine.

While you’re planning this, think about whether you might ever want an electric heated towel rail. If you’re in Spain — particularly on the coast — the answer is probably yes, even if you’re not sure right now. It costs almost nothing to run a cable and put a socket in the right spot during renovation. It costs considerably more to do it later with finished walls. Our blog post on humidity explains why towel rails are worth considering on the Costa Blanca specifically.

Utility room and garage

Utility rooms get surprisingly busy. Washing machine, dryer, iron, steamer — and then whatever else ends up in there over time. Put more sockets than you think you need, because you’ll fill them.

Same goes for the garage. If you ever do any work on a car, motorbike, bicycle — or even just want to vacuum the car or plug in a compressor — you’ll want sockets at different heights and in different spots. Running an extension lead across the garage floor every time you need power gets old quickly.

The simple rule

Think room by room. Think about how you actually live — where you sit, where you work, where you charge things, what appliances you have or might want in the future. Then add a few more sockets than you think you’ll need. You won’t regret it.