Kitchen Circuit

[RBM]

[mike]

According to my understanding of code, the kitchen countertop outlets have to be on two 20-amp "small appliance" circuits.

My current kitchen countertop plugs are all on a single 20-amp circuit (previous owners redid the kitchen about 10 years ago).

I'm putting another, smaller counter on the opposite wall now (8ft long,

12" deep). I'm running a new 20-amp circuit to the outlets over this counter.

Does this meet code (technically there will be two 20-amp circuits)? Or must I run a two-circuit 12/3 cable to these new outlets?

I'm assuming I don't need to redo the previously wired outlets if I don't mess with that circuit.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks to all who contribute to this group.

*moc

[Doug Miller]

For work done after the Code incorporated that provision, yes. *At least* two. Doesn't mean you can't have three, or five, or seventeen.

Met Code at the time...

Okay.

AFAIK, the Code does *not* say that there need to be two circuits serving each segment of countertop, just that there must be at least two circuits serving the *room*.

You can if you want, but it's not required by the NEC.

Better ask your local inspector about that one. He may require that you bring the entire room up to current Code if you touch *any* of it, and I'll bet that the spacing between the existing receptacles doesn't meet current Code. (Used to be every six feet, now it's every four.) You may not have the GFCI protection required by current Code, either.

Talk to your local inspector. He's the guy with the final say.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[SQLit]

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Using the kitchen circuits for the dining room is a violation as I interperate the NEC

210-52.b.2 page 44 of my 1999 code book "the 2 or more small appliance brancn circuits specified..... shall have no other outlets."

better check locally

[Wayne Whitney]

Umm, 210.52(B)(2) reads as quoted, where specified is "specified in

210.52(B)(1)". And 210.52(B)(1) reads

In the kitchen, pantry, breakfast room, dining room, or similar area of a dwelling unit, the two or more 20-ampere small-appliance branch circuits required by 210.11(C)(1) shall serve all receptacle outlets covered by 210.52(A) and (C) and receptacle outlets for refrigeration equipment.

So the upshot is that, oddly, the circuit serving the dining room receptacles may not serve receptacles other than in the kitchen, pantry, etc. I wonder what the thinking behind this rule is?

BTW, Exception No. 2 to 210.52(B)(1) allows the refrigerator to be on an "individual branch circuit rated 15 amperes or greater." Sounds like this would preclude running two refrigerators on a single 15 amp circuit.

Cheers, Wayne

[Goedjn]

On the other hand, if you're anything like me, your power-hungry appliances are all clustered together in one place, to leave room for dirty di... ahh.. to leave more workspace.. yeah. So it makes sense to have the outlets alternate, or even split. I forget what the conclusion was, last time around, will a GFCI recepticle even work on an edison circut?

--Goedjn

[Goedjn]

I'm pretty sure that that applies only to the Dining-Room outlets that feed any COUNTERTOPS in the diningroom, not the convenience outlets scattered around the room, and it's because, when you're using such a countertop, you're likely to have things like crock-pots, fondue-pots, warming lamps, champaign fountains, cube-refridgerators, beer-coolers, and other equipment plugged in. A built-in side board is, functionally, an extension of the kitchen counters.

Why would you want to?. If you're running wire anyway, you should either make it a 20A circut, or better, a split recepticle on a 3 wire branch.

--Goedjn

[Greg]

It will work as long as you split out the neutral after the GFCI You bring the multiwire circuit into the kitchen, split it and use a GFCI receptacle on each branch. Down stream receptacles are regular 2 wire with ground beyond that.

M> will a GFCI

[Wayne Whitney]

No, 210.52(A) covers the convenience outlets, and 210.52(C) covers the countertop outlets, so the above requirement does apply to all dining room outlets.

Cheers, Wayne