NEC 2017 - 210.71 Meeting Room 12' Width Clarification

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MazzEE

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Location
Atlanta, GA US
I have a room 11'-9" x 23'-9", (279 sq ft).
Based on 210.71(B)(2) NEC 2017, "A meeting room that is at least 12' wide and that has floor area of at least 215 sq. ft. shall have at least one receptacle outlet located in the floor at a distance not less than 6' from any fixed wall for each 215 sq. ft. or major portion of floor space."

Based on my example with one dimension less than 12', and one greater than 12', it is physically impossible to be greater than 6' from any fixed wall.

Therefore i do not meet the requirements of this part of the code and no floor outlets are required. Is my understanding correct or do I need the two floor outlets as shown?
Conference Room.JPG
 

charlie b

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Location
Lockport, IL
Occupation
Retired Electrical Engineer
First of all, I believe you would not need more than one. If you subtract the 215 feet (the rule) from the 279 feet (your room), the remainder of 65 feet is not a "major portion" of the 215. Secondly, I don't think you need one at all. The room is not at least 12 feet wide. Now, I can foresee an inspector looking at this and saying that the room is 23'9" wide, and not allowing a quibble over the meaning of "wide" and "long."
 

MNWildcat

Member
Location
MN
I agree that this room does NOT meet the requirement to have a floor box. I always read the text as '12' in the smallest dimension', partly due to the OP's example that if smaller than 12' you cannot meet the >6' requirement.
Also, with a room <12', every spot in the room is within reach of the wall with a 6' cord, so the problem the code is trying to address/fix does not exist in this case.
You can always add them if they are not required - I just don't think it is required here.
 

ElectricMatt

Senior Member
Location
Waco, tx
I have a room 11'-9" x 23'-9", (279 sq ft).
Based on 210.71(B)(2) NEC 2017, "A meeting room that is at least 12' wide and that has floor area of at least 215 sq. ft. shall have at least one receptacle outlet located in the floor at a distance not less than 6' from any fixed wall for each 215 sq. ft. or major portion of floor space."

Based on my example with one dimension less than 12', and one greater than 12', it is physically impossible to be greater than 6' from any fixed wall.

Therefore i do not meet the requirements of this part of the code and no floor outlets are required. Is my understanding correct or do I need the two floor outlets as shown?
View attachment 21108

You may not be “required” by code. However, you are not “required” to maintain 6’ from the wall for any wall plug. The 6’ rule only counts on the required floor plugs. The way I see it is those are two floor power/data plugs that will go under a conference table to help keep people from tripping over wires from laptops, phone chargers, etc.

As long as it is legal, and it is, that is a set of engineered drawings. I would put them in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Adamjamma

Senior Member
I think that according to Code, you are not required to have the floor boxes, but, the architect or customer has two boxes shown on their plans so they must want them, for projectors or such.. I mean, according to code now, all the outlets can be ganged at one end of the room for convenience of the building owner, like a stage, yet the drawing shows a layout more like a home would have with a very nice proportion of outlets around the room.

So, what you must remember is the code is a minimum requirement and the customer may want more than the code requires... My own kitchen has ten more outlets on two more breakers than the two outlet sets required by code, because I use a load of stuff in some of my recipes...
 

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
How do you locate the receptacle greater than 6' from every fixed wall?

Both of the floor boxes look about 9’ from each of the walls in the 23’ 9” width.

The requirement is “not less than 6’ from ANY fixed wall”.
 
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MazzEE

Member
Location
Atlanta, GA US
The requirement is “not less than 6’ from ANY fixed wall”.

Ok so how do you locate a receptacle not less than 6' from any fixed wall if you have one dimension less than 12'? Based on this example no matter where you locate it you will always be within 6' of a fixed wall. The code needs to be clarified some more on the "not less than 6' from ANY fixed wall" otherwise if your room ever has a dimension less than 12' you will not be required to have a floor box.
 
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