Re: Apartments, 210.52, and Detached Garages, Oh my!
Sam,
So does it have to be readily accessible? Cause I'm not sure yet.
Edit: 210.8 is about GFI. Why would I be sent there to find out about readily accessable?
I had a solid reply to this half done when that stupid dog at my feet really
wedged himself under the desk and shut off the surge protector. So this one is going to be equally long, but not as satisfying.
Essentially, we've got two forces at work. We have an appliance (or several) first, and beyond that, we have 210.52 making general requirements for receptacle placements
In a nutshell, since outlets that aren't readily accessible are exempt from GFI protection, the garage door opener (which by 210.50(C) has to be within 6' of the appliance which is rendered moot by physics, since it needs to be closer than that anyway) which has to be in the ceiling, is not readily accessible (according to Article 100).
So, by exception 2, we'd have to use a single receptacle.
But because of exception 1, we can install a non-GFI-protected duplex, because it's not readily accessible.
210.8(A)(2) is kind enough to let us know that this receptacle in the ceiling or for a freezer is exactly what they had in mind when they included the exceptions, and that someone shouldn't be forced to unplug their garage door opener or a freezer to plug in their metal-cased drill in the garage.
Here's another take: Picture a house with no outlets, and we're starting from the ground up, drawing them in on the plans. 210.50 is first section in Part III. So we start there. We look for every appliance in the house, and draw in a receptacle within 6' of it.
If we stopped there, we'd have a naked house, because all the other receptacles are for transient appliances, that move around and can never be trusted to be in a given place. So 210.52 kicks in. Going down the list to (G), filling in the plans, we start to get receptacles all over the place.
Once we arrive at (G), we already noticed that (A)-(F) didn't include the garage, so until this point there has been no readily accessible receptacle required by Part III. Now, there is just one receptacle required, accessible or not. Well, I have one, for the garage door. But I need to look at 210.8 to get the full story, according to (G).
I feel like I'm spinning wheels. Hope it helped.
I don't think this is too tricky, in comparison to 210.52(B) and that area. A little tweak could be in order, I guess.
