Garage 20 amp circuit

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florida-sparkey said:
TWO IDEAS IN THIS THREAD, LOL.

1.- GARAGE RECEPS
I see it that if you plunk a receptacle under the panel on its own 20Amp circuit, you have met the garage requirement and are free to wire the door and 20 more receptacles on #14 if you so chose.
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If panel is in the garage, yes.

Might want to see how your AHJ interprets this. I recently had a similar issue with inspector, but was over whether or not an outlet should have been on the "laundry circuit". Receptacle outlet was in same room as laundry equipment but not on same circuit. I told him I already have my "laundry circuit" and could put as many other receptacle outlets as I wanted in the same room and didn't matter if they had other outlets in other spaces on with them or not (except obvious prohibited like SABC circuits). He didn't see it that way and wanted all receptacle outlets in same room on the "laundry circuit". He eventually got his way, but I didn't give in easily. I still disagree that is what code says.
 
kwired said:
I recently had a similar issue with inspector, but was over whether or not an outlet should have been on the "laundry circuit". Receptacle outlet was in same room as laundry equipment but not on same circuit. I told him I already have my "laundry circuit" and could put as many other receptacle outlets as I wanted in the same room and didn't matter if they had other outlets in other spaces on with them or not (except obvious prohibited like SABC circuits). He didn't see it that way and wanted all receptacle outlets in same room on the "laundry circuit". He eventually got his way, but I didn't give in easily. I still disagree that is what code says.
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Inspector was wrong- we've been over this before in several threads. As long as the req laundry ckt is present then you can run as many "mixed" ckts as you wish to the laundry area.

Maybe you can persuade this guy to pay us a visit.....:D

peter d said:
I've been having a friendly dispute with some coworkers. We wire a lot of new houses and the standard practice is to wire garages like this - one 15 amp circuit for the garage door opener, which is protected by accessible receptacle GFCI on an adjacent wall to protect it. Sometimes the garage lights are on the same circuit. The rest of the garage outlets are on a separate 20 amp circuit. I don't believe this is compliant. I read the code as the require all garage outlets to be on a 20 amp circuit without exception.

What say you?
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I agree with the others- code doesn't say that all recs in garage have to be fed from a 20. In fact, per 210.11(C)(4) and 210.52(G)(1), you could run a single 20a ckt to one gfci rec (IBC/dedicated) in the garage and you have satisfied code with respect to those rules.
 
Garage 20 amp

Garage 20 amp

How I wire goes like this.
14-2 homerun to the irrigation to the GDO to the hot water heater. Then take a 12-2 to garage GFI load out to 2 other plugs. Inspector here in California wants 1 plug on the GFI for each wall.. Each city is different though. Good luck
What say you?[/QUOTE]
 
ELECTRICIAN8355 said:
How I wire goes like this.
14-2 homerun to the irrigation to the GDO to the hot water heater. Then take a 12-2 to garage GFI load out to 2 other plugs. Inspector here in California wants 1 plug on the GFI for each wall.. Each city is different though. Good luck
What say you?
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[/QUOTE]NEC without any local amendments doesn't require most of what you mentioned. 2017 did have change to require at least one 20 amp circuit supply receptacle outlets in the garage, doesn't say which receptacles need to be on that circuit. I take that to mean at least one receptacle is required on said 20 amp circuit and you can do whatever you want with any others.
 
user 100 said:
Inspector was wrong- we've been over this before in several threads. As long as the req laundry ckt is present then you can run as many "mixed" ckts as you wish to the laundry area.

Maybe you can persuade this guy to pay us a visit.....:D
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He let me leave what I had on that project, wants me to do it "his way" in the future. We even called his boss but he stood behind the inspector on interpretation of this.:(

I still think they were wrong. I pissed him off when discussion started to go south and I told him he isn't the AHJ, he is AHJ representative, his boss didn't buy that either, I tried to explain they both have authority to make decisions on behalf of AHJ who technically is the organization they work for and not any individual, but they were too stuck on me telling them they were not AHJ instead of listening to reasoning.

Left that encounter still speaking to each other, but might not be his favorite contractor right now, I don't care.
 
As was pointed out the door opener also has a light on it by default.

perhaps Mount the GFCI above 5 ½ feet.

maybe Use a faceless GFCI devise

i do not think the wording is clear enough in stating all rec outlets in that garage area have to be on a required 20 amp circuit.
 
david said:
As was pointed out the door opener also has a light on it by default.

perhaps Mount the GFCI above 5 ½ feet.

maybe Use a faceless GFCI devise

i do not think the wording is clear enough in stating all rec outlets in that garage area have to be on a required 20 amp circuit.
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All 15/20 amp 120 volt receptacles in the garage need GFCI protection.

GFCI devices need to be readily accessible

The new 210.11(C)(4) requires at least one 20 amp branch circuit that supplies (at least one) receptacle outlets in the garage. Does not mention where to place such receptacle outlets within the garage.

As worded it can't have lighting outlets on that circuit.

Garage door opener receptacle is one place subject to interpretation, it is a receptacle outlet but at same time is an outlet for a fastened in place appliance and is not exactly a general use outlet. Though a GDO often has a light on it, most would never consider it a lighting outlet that would satisfy 210.70 requirements.
 
kwired said:
All 15/20 amp 120 volt receptacles in the garage need GFCI protection.

GFCI devices need to be readily accessible

The new 210.11(C)(4) requires at least one 20 amp branch circuit that supplies (at least one) receptacle outlets in the garage. Does not mention where to place such receptacle outlets within the garage.

As worded it can't have lighting outlets on that circuit.

Garage door opener receptacle is one place subject to interpretation, it is a receptacle outlet but at same time is an outlet for a fastened in place appliance and is not exactly a general use outlet. Though a GDO often has a light on it, most would never consider it a lighting outlet that would satisfy 210.70 requirements.
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as i understand the section Dennis posted if mounted greater than 5 1/2 feet above floor it could not count as the required rec. outlet.

i would consider a permanently installed garage door opener and its rec disconnect as an additional outlet.

never the less a faceless GFCI devise to protect the garage door rec. (disconnect) on a 15 amp circuit could not be a rec. outlet
 
david said:
as i understand the section Dennis posted if mounted greater than 5 1/2 feet above floor it could not count as the required rec. outlet.

i would consider a permanently installed garage door opener and its rec disconnect as an additional outlet.

never the less a faceless GFCI devise to protect the garage door rec. (disconnect) on a 15 amp circuit could not be a rec. outlet
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Careful reading it over and I now agree that a receptacle over 5.5 feet can not count as a required outlet - which I sort of got that rule before - but what I may have been missing is that anything over 5.5 feet is part of those "other outlets" that can't be served by the "at least one required 20 amp circuit" - even if they are "receptacle outlets" in the garage.

bottom line if you put 100 branch circuits in the garage - even a mixture of 15 and 20 amp circuits, at least one of those circuits must be 20 amps with only receptacle outlet(s) located no higher then 5.5 feet - but can have a readily accessible outside outlet on with them according to exception:blink:
 
kwired said:
- but what I may have been missing is that anything over 5.5 feet is part of those "other outlets" that can't be served by the "at least one required 20 amp circuit" - even if they are "receptacle outlets" in the garage.
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I disagree with this.

210.11(C)(4) allows any 20-ampere receptacle outlet in a garage to be on this circuit.
 
jap said:
Not if the receptacle in the ceiling is considered not readily accessible.

JAP>
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I'm about to take this back.
If the receptacle outlet for the Garage Door opener is considered one of the "Garage Receptacle Outlets" and an outlet specifically for the garage door opener is not required, then, I don't see why the receptacle in the ceiling for the garage door opener couldn't be on the required 20a receptacle circuit for the garage.

The exception for the "Outdoor" receptacle outlets seems to be where the "readily accessible" part comes in.

So,

Is a garage door opener required to be on a circuit of it's own?


JAP>
 
jap said:
I'm about to take this back.
If the receptacle outlet for the Garage Door opener is considered one of the "Garage Receptacle Outlets" and an outlet specifically for the garage door opener is not required, then, I don't see why the receptacle in the ceiling for the garage door opener couldn't be on the required 20a receptacle circuit for the garage.

The exception for the "Outdoor" receptacle outlets seems to be where the "readily accessible" part comes in.

So,

Is a garage door opener required to be on a circuit of it's own?


JAP>
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In the code making process the garage door rec. outlet will become the same logic as the refrigerator in a kitchen.

It needs to be a design issue if I choose to put the motor for the garage door opener on a dedicated circuit why would the code require a larger circuit in this section than code would if I went to article 430 for motors

The two sections will become in conflict and will necessitate a code change allowing for a dedicated 15 amp circuit.
 
david said:
In the code making process the garage door rec. outlet will become the same logic as the refrigerator in a kitchen.

It needs to be a design issue if I choose to put the motor for the garage door opener on a dedicated circuit why would the code require a larger circuit in this section than code would if I went to article 430 for motors

The two sections will become in conflict and will necessitate a code change allowing for a dedicated 15 amp circuit.
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In that case, I don't see why the GDO cannot be on the required 20a circuit with the rest of the garage outlets.
and also the readily accessible outdoor outlets per the exception.

JAP>
 
shortcircuit2 said:
I disagree with this.

210.11(C)(4) allows any 20-ampere receptacle outlet in a garage to be on this circuit.
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Ok, got me thinking some more about it. I think it all hinges on what is meant by "in addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section"

If that only means what is covered in other parts of 210.11 - then I think I agree any outlet in the garage to be on this circuit that isn't associated with laundry, bathroom, small appliance...

If it includes what is mentioned in 210.52 required outlets ??

I'll change my mind a few more times on this as information gets presented;)
 
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