This isn't better. The way most people use rooms, the power hungry equipment tends to clump together, so you want as many DIFFERENT legs accessible at each power-access-point as you can conveniently manage.
Ok, that I like. Quad boxes, 2 outlets on one phase, one on the other, and the last on the second phase, but switched. MARK them.
There is no logical reason for a limit on the number of recepticals on a circut, nor was it, (last version I checked) in the NEC. The only general requirement for the number of circuts falls out of the requirement for 3watts/sqft of available power, and the limit of
20A per circut. OTOH, there's no such thing as too much available power, and it's a whole lot cheaper to run circuts all at the same time than to come back and add another one.
I think they mean: before installing the outlet, install a 6" wire to the receptacle connectors. Then, connect *that* to the box wiring. This gives you extra pull out room and lets you leave the box wiring mostly alone for swaping the unit out. Probably has some other benefits as well.
You might have to use larger boxes to handle the extra wire.
According to Goedjn :
I'd agree with you with a kitchen, workshop or utility room. Up til very recently (with the advent of GFCI requirements) Canadian electrical code _required_ kitchen counter outlets to be _both_ split, and alternating which receptacle box each cable fed (max two boxes per circuit).
Meaning that at any point on the counter between two receptacle boxes, you have _4_ 15A circuits available within 4'.
I did that in my workshop counter outlets too.
However, in general living space, eg: a rec room, it's not likely to be critical.
But if you have the slots, it never hurts.
Other than allowing the rest of the circuit to function if one of the outlets dies, what's the benefit to pigtailing the outlets rather than running them all in series ? Is pigtailing the outlets absolutely required if using 12/3 with a double pole breaker and alternating outlets between the two circuits (i.e. outlet1=circuit1, outlet2=circuit2, outlet3=circuit1 etc. )
If I do pigtail the outlets to the main 12/3 line going around my basement, where's the appropriate location for the pigtail connections relative to the main line? Putting the pigtail connection above the box, between two joists, and surrounded by fiberglass insulation doesn't seem correct to me.
Also, it seems that the physical connection using the terminal screws on the outlets would be stronger than the connection provided by a wirenut. Thoughts on that??
Thanks, Kevin
According to snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com :
Code requires you to pigtail multi-wire branch neutrals ALWAYS. The idea being that if you remove a device, pigtailing means it's less likely that something bad happens downstream.
Eg: losing a neutral on a split circuit can be quite catastrophic.
Thanks a lot. Pigtailing it is, then!
By pigtailing you avoid the chance that a loose connection on any one outlet would affect the downstream outlets. It is especially important when using
12-3 to pigtail the neutrals. This way if you have to replace an outlet, you don't "open" your neutral circuit to the downstream outlets. It's just good practice to never use the outlet as a connection by putting 4 wires on it.It's not a rule, it's a preference. When I wired houses, I typically installed seven on a 15 amp circuit
It's perfectly fine to install four wires on a receptacle, it is however illegal to have a neutral in a three wire Edison circuit dependent upon a device
Yes, fine. But not recommended.
Yes - This is the way I would do it too!
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All connections have to be made *inside* the box to prevent sparks from igniting any material inside the wall cavities. If you're going to pigtail, it would be a good idea to use extra deep outlet boxes to accommodate the wire nuts that will be needed.
Personally, I'd not bother for two reasons. If you decide to use some sort of automated outlet or dimmer switch, you'll find they are much larger than standard switches and outlets and you'll be facing a very tight fit if you've got three wirenuts to account for.
Also, if you wire through the back of the outlets and one outlet dies, it may take the rest of the string with them but that's not such a bad thing. It will tell you with a high degree of certainty which outlet needs attention: the one that's failed closest to the main breakers.
I suspect some of the replies you got were assuming you'd use the "backstab" connections on the outlets. IMHO, those are quick and dirty and far more likely to fail than either wire nuts or terminal screws. I just repaired one for a friend whose disposal first became intermittent and then failed completely. The outlet that it drew power from had been badly "backstabbed" and the connection became loose. As soon as she told me that there was another kitchen outlet that was flaky, I realized what the problem was.
Whatever you decide, make sure your wire stripping is clean and without nicks. The failure point for outlets and switches, at least in my experience, always seems to be at the point where the copper was nicked by the stripper.
-- Bobby G.
You friend was lucky. Our house had all (orignall) outlets backstabbed. One in the family room burned up for some unkown reason (short? arc?). Our insurance company not only paid for the repair of the 3' x 3' hole the firefighters had to make in the dry wall to make sure the small insulation fire was out, but they paid to have an electrican replace that outlet AND rewire every other outlet in the house to use the terminal screws.
Instead of "daisy chaining" the outlet with the supply going to one screw and the downstream loand going to the other, you connect the supply, load, and a small "pigtail" wire together with a wirenut and then wire the pigtail to a screw on the outlet.
This is especially important for the neutral on a 3 wire "Edison" type circuit where you have 2 hots and a netrual e.g., 12-3, in the box. In this case you really have 2 circuits (opposite phases, usually black and red sharing the same white netural wire. The reason this works is because the worst case is one circuit (say, the red wire) is fully loaded and the other one (back wire) is unused. Then you have the same current in the white wire as the red one which is OK. As you begin to add load to the black wire, the opposing phase current in the white wire actually cancels out the other and you have less current in the neutral (white) wire. If both hot wires carried exactly the same load, there would be NO current in the neutral.
If one of the outlets is removed or fails or a connection comes loose, and the neutral is not pigtailed, the downstream outlets will suddenly have 240v across them and be wired in series. Light bulbs turn blue and go pop; other devices fail in more spectacular ways.
Originally, our house not only had several of these circuits with no pigtails, but the neutral wires were backstabbed into the outlets. My skin crawls just thinking about it. It's all been converted now.
Yes...I'll definitely be pigtailing!!
Thanks for the feedback!
Kevin
If you had to replace an outlet, you'd have the breaker off at the panel, wouldn't you? Why would you care what happened downstream on a dead circuit branch?
I looked in a recent addition of "Wiring Simplified" and they show pigtailing only when the wire feeding the outlet box goes on to another circuit, and not just the string of outlets. They clearly show a string of outlets connected by the two pairs of screws on each side. Their only caveat is that code prohibits more than one wire under a screw terminal. That just means you have no choice but to continue the string of outlets until the end and not wire in any other devices. If they were wrong, I would have hoped someone would have noticed by the 38th edition. :-)
I ask because in the new home construction I've encountered, not only were the outlets chained together, they were backstabbed together. Now that's asking for trouble, but for a different reason. Those connections can vibrate loose and if they're on an outside wall, they can work loose by expansion and contraction.
From what I've seen adding more connections to the outlet box doesn't increase reliability. If you pigtail you've got two extra "three wires to one wire nut" connections for each outlet. I've come across more than one "three wire nut" that's got one wire popped out of it.
It takes strong hands and a good eye to cut, strip and twist three stiff wires into a nut that will survive repacking into the back of the box. It's not a problem for an electrical pro, but for people doing their own electric al work, it seems a lot easier and lot more reliable if they just daisy chain the outlets using the screw terminals.
I'm still not clear on why it would be preferable for even an electrician to make three connections (pigtail) when he could just as easily make only two (pass-thru), especially when we're talking about a string of outlets on a dedicate breaker. What am I missing?
-- Bobby G.
In my case, i think the problem is that the neutral wire is shared between the two alternating circuits. So if the continuity of the neutral circuit is interrupted because of a bad outlet or something, pigtailing will avoid that problem. Anyway, that's my take. Both my Black & Decker DIY books show pigtailing and thats the recommendation I see in these groups so that's with I'M gonna do. :-)
Kevin
According to snipped-for-privacy@blah.com :
It's code requirement here for shared neutrals.
According to Robert Green :
It's not uncommon to see shared neutral circuits to not be tiebarred together in the panel. Someone naively turning off one breaker, and pulling out the outlet breaking the neutral (he doesn't get zapped unless something is live and pulling power on the other leg) can result in rather nasty things happening. Especially if the first breaker is turned back on. That downstream may not really be dead in a shared neutral.
It happened often enough for our code to require neutral pigtails at least on shared neutral circuits. As yours does.
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