Dedicated Circuit: Is Junction Box Required?

I plan on adding a dedicated 20A GFIC outlet above my kitchen countertop, fed from a new 20A circuit breaker via 12-2 w/ground Romex run through my attic and down inside the wall to the outlet. Two questions:

  1. Since it will be a dedicated circuit (only the one outlet on it) does the electrical code require a junction box between the breaker and the outlet?

  1. Since the outlet will be the end of the line, is it necessary to use wire caps and jumpers for the hot and neutral in the outlet box, or can I simply run them straight to the outlet terminals? I've seen the connections drawn both ways in reference books. They all show the wire cap and jumper to a screw for the ground wire, but differ as to the need for wire caps and jumpers for the other two wires.

Reply to
Josh
Loading thread data ...

Hi, What is wire cap and jumper? You mean pig tails?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Yes, sorry......meant to say pig tails. Are they required for end of circuit?

Reply to
Josh

I dont know where you got the idea that you need either of these. Just run the romex directly from your breaker panel to the box for the outlet and wire the ends of the romex right to the outlet. Junction boxes are only needed if you splice the wire or run several cables together. Why would you even think you need jumpers? That's just plain stupid. You only need them if you have several wires that need to go to a screw on an outlet, or is someone made the wires too short in the box. Allow 6 inches of wire inside the box and connect each wire to the screws. Ground the bare wire to the box as well as the outlet. That's it.

Reply to
jameswaters

No and no. You can run a cable, unbroken all the way.

Reply to
gfretwell

Hi, Our kitchen has a sub panel serving it. Any how you just run end to end straight from panel breaker to the outlet. No junction box or pig tails needed.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

No junction box is required, except for the box that the receptacle will be in. No wire nuts required at the receptacle unless the unit you're using has pigtails on it, instead of screw or clamp terminals

>
Reply to
RBM

On 6/30/2010 10:43 PM snipped-for-privacy@aol.com spake thus:

What he[1] said.

Just to clear up the confusion, the reason you see pigtails (jumpers) and wire nuts used in wiring guides is that they're very useful when you have cables both entering and exiting an outlet box, making for a lot of extra connections. Obviously, if you only have a single cable and a single device (GFCI outlet), you can simply wire the cable to the device.

[1] I'm ASSuming that gfretwell is a he.
Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Contact your local code enforcement office and ask them. No one here is going to know preciesly what their requirements are.

HTH,

Twayne`

Reply to
Twayne

People on this group tend to know NEC and CEC, which is certainly the basis for whatever local jurisdictions use. Why is it that you think everyone has a " local code enforcement office"? I for one, have nothing like that in my area.

>
Reply to
RBM

m,

LOL... You do have such an office, you just live in a large area served by a county-wide or state-wide "local office"...

Most places in the US have a city or town wiring inspector OR pay a fee to their county to have the county inspector conduct the wiring inspections and sign off on the permits...

~~ Evan

Reply to
Evan

Evan wrote: ...

And, you don't know that, either...believe it or not, there _are_ still places that really, really don't have local inspection.

Well, outside the city 3-mile limit, there is none here, either. There is a sewer/well permit process but nothing other than that and the County doesn't pay the City nor are there building permits, etc., beyond that.

As for the OP's question for that particular situation there's _no_ chance any local modifications would require either of the things asked about.

--

Reply to
dpb

LOL... You do have such an office, you just live in a large area served by a county-wide or state-wide "local office"...

Most places in the US have a city or town wiring inspector OR pay a fee to their county to have the county inspector conduct the wiring inspections and sign off on the permits...

~~ Evan

Not exactly. I live in Westchester county, NY. I hold a master electrician's license issued by the county. When I do electrical work, depending upon the particular jurisdiction , I hire an inspection company and I pay them directly. There are no electrical code enforcement offices that a citizen can call and get any information regarding electrical requirements.

Reply to
RBM

You are either weasel-wording or just outright uneducated. There IS code enforcement, whether you choose to recognize it or not.

Reply to
Twayne

You are under a serious misconception. The NEC et al, is a set of nationwide MINIMAL requirements based on the criteria of many different organizations all pulled together into NEC (NFPA, etc.). MINIMUM is the operative word there. Many zoning areas management choose to strengthen some parts of it as they see fit for the demographics of any geographical area they serve. They use the NEC as the basiis for their requirements and adjust it as they require for their own specifc needs. The NEC requirements can only be strengthened, never loosened, by local jurisdiction. Because you don't see a generic entry in your phone book for local code enforcement" does not in any way mean that there isn't an office that dictates what codes must be followed for any particular area. Even ifi all they have to say is to follow NEC, it is still their responsibility to do so. One may have to work thru the phone book from rural, village, town, county or state, but there IS a governing office for building requirements, of which NEC is one of them. In some very rural outlying areas there may not be any enforcement, but unless the office is vacant, there is a ttle responsible for the zoning.

Most of the time, electrical questions on code requirements are much more clearly and easily settled with simple phone calls to the zoning offices or town/county/state responsiblity to get the information directly from those who enforce it. Very few code requirement questions can ever be faithfully answered on a newsgroup; though you can get some good suggestions maybe. But you can NOT get the actual local requirements here since you have no idea who you're talking to and no idea whether they even are who they say they are.

HTH,

Twayne`

Reply to
Twayne

You constantly tell people to call their "code inforcement office" for answers to their electrical questions. I'm saying that there is no code inforcement office in my county or any neighboring counties. When licensed electricians do work, we have accounts with private ,certified electrical inspection companies.We hire them and they inspect our work. There is no governmental office that one can call for answers to electrical questions, and the private inspection companies are only going to tell a person to call a licensed electrician.

>
Reply to
RBM

Well said.

Reply to
Twayne

Twayne wrote: ...

No, you're making unwarranted assumptions that just because there's something in place where you are or have been that means it's universal.

It isn't...there is no electrical or building code enforcement in the county outside the city-mandated 3-mile limit here, either...there is a requirement on sewage/water but that's the extent.

--

Reply to
dpb

Sorry Twayne, it actually just sounds like a bunch of gibberish

>
Reply to
RBM

Effectviely that's probably true, but since it's not applicable to 99% of cases or more, it's hair splitting that is more or less useless information for purposes of useful discussion.

Ouch! If you believe everything you just said, I feel for you. Also, I'd like to know precisely where this area is with the "3-mile limit" from a "city". I don't believe it. And of course, the country you are talking about. Something feels very wrong with your comment.

HTH,

Twayne`

Reply to
Twayne

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.