Laundry receptacles?

[charlie b]

Rick, are you suggesting that if I had a laundry room with two separate set of hookups, and I had two washers and two dryers, that I could feed one duplex receptacle near one set of hookups, with no other outlets on that 20 amp circuit, and then use a second 20 amp circuit to feed a duplex receptacle near the other set of hookups, and I can put the overhead light on that second circuit? Are you saying that no matter how many "laundry circuits" I install, only one of them has the "no other outlets" restriction? I don't buy that. The singular nature in the second sentence you highlighted does not restrict its applicability to the first laundry circuit only. If there exists a "laundry circuit," then the "no other outlets" applies to that circuit, without regard to the presence of any other circuit in the entire building.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Rick, are you suggesting that.......

I'm suggesting? Where do you get that? Changing the topic after the fact and trying to shoehorn someone else's answer into it is bad form. :thumbsdown:

Finding examples that can't be addressed by code is not a proper argument for discussing what is addressed by code. Once the NEC is adopted by local ordinance, it becomes a legal document, and its interpretation is no different than interpreting any other legal ordinance. The precision of the words is binding, and that includes the imprecision too.

The reason why this discussion exists in the first place is because the NEC is silent on defining what the term "laundry" means. It is described for mobile homes in 550, but because this is not applicable to residential dwellings, it can only be used to cite precedence. If precedence is cited, then not only does your example constitute 2 separate laundries, but it also excludes the outlet in question that is not related to the appliances.

Nowhere in the NEC will you find the term "laundry room", because it is undefined. As a matter of fact, my own laundry room is quite large and constitutes additional functions not related to laundry. The same would be true for a basement laundry area that has no partition walls. You can't have it both ways. If it is an area related to appliances, then it is limited to those appiances. If it is limited to a room, then in many cases, the entire basement would be a laundry.