Outdoor outlets on dedicated circuit or.......?

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JoeNorm

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Wondering if it is wise to put all the outdoor receptacles on their own circuit or if it is standard to have them on mixed circuits(whichever is closest)? I am referring to the outdoor receptacles attached to the structure.

thanks
 
You can come off any non dedicated space circuits. Some companies come off one of the garage circuits. But if you're doing large houses. That wouldn't be prudent.
 
rjniles said:
Coming off garage circuit is a violation under current code.

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(4) Garage Branch Circuits. In addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section, at least one 120-volt, 20-ampere branch circuit shall be installed to supply receptacle outlets in attached garages and in detached garages with electric power. This circuit shall have no other outlets.
Exception: This circuit shall be permitted to supply readily accessible outdoor receptacle outlets.
 
480sparky said:
(4) Garage Branch Circuits. In addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section, at least one 120-volt, 20-ampere branch circuit shall be installed to supply receptacle outlets in attached garages and in detached garages with electric power. This circuit shall have no other outlets.
Exception: This circuit shall be permitted to supply readily accessible outdoor receptacle outlets.
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The way that is worded, a second circuit would be required for the lights? Usually I pull power for the lights from the room at the garage entrance into the house anyway, but with a detached garage, two circuits would be required or a panel to provide two or more circuits.
 
hillbilly1 said:
The way that is worded, a second circuit would be required for the lights? Usually I pull power for the lights from the room at the garage entrance into the house anyway, but with a detached garage, two circuits would be required or a panel to provide two or more circuits.
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The light would be another outlet. The exception is for receptacles.
 
480sparky said:
The light would be another outlet. The exception is for receptacles.
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It says this circuit shall have no other “outlets”, it’s not part of the exception. They consider a light or smoke detector an “outlet” when it comes to Arc Fault protection, so it would be the same here. Probably not what they intended when they wrote the rule, but if it applies elsewhere, then.............There are a lot of detached garages out there that have only one circuit, according to that, they do not meet code.
 
hillbilly1 said:
It says this circuit shall have no other “outlets”, it’s not part of the exception. They consider a light or smoke detector an “outlet” when it comes to Arc Fault protection, so it would be the same here. Probably not what they intended when they wrote the rule, but if it applies elsewhere, then.............There are a lot of detached garages out there that have only one circuit, according to that, they do not meet code.
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It shall have no other outlets. Lights, sump pump, smokes. furnace, dishwasher, etc. But the exception allows for outside receptacles.

AFCIs have nothing to do with the definition of an outlet. That's in the Definitions of Art. 100.
 
We often put them on a separate circuit unless you have a circuit that does not have afci. I find that afci are a real nuisance when using power saws. That was years ago but we still try and separate it if we are not having to watch costs
 
480sparky said:
It shall have no other outlets. Lights, sump pump, smokes. furnace, dishwasher, etc. But the exception allows for outside receptacles.

AFCIs have nothing to do with the definition of an outlet. That's in the Definitions of Art. 100.
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I’m not saying it does have anything to do with afci, I’m saying the say same definition of outlet that requires afci protection would apply here. What I am saying is you can’t run a single circuit out to a detached garage because of what this rule says. If you go by this rule, two circuits would be the minimum to the garage. Don’t know of anybody doing that short of putting a panel out there.
 
hillbilly1 said:
I’m not saying it does have anything to do with afci, I’m saying the say same definition of outlet that requires afci protection would apply here. What I am saying is you can’t run a single circuit out to a detached garage because of what this rule says. If you go by this rule, two circuits would be the minimum to the garage. Don’t know of anybody doing that short of putting a panel out there.
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Where are outside receptacles and detached garages required to be AFCI'd?
 
hillbilly1 said:
I’m not saying it does have anything to do with afci, I’m saying the say same definition of outlet that requires afci protection would apply here. What I am saying is you can’t run a single circuit out to a detached garage because of what this rule says. If you go by this rule, two circuits would be the minimum to the garage. Don’t know of anybody doing that short of putting a panel out there.
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Yes, two circuits are required for a garage. That was a 2017 code change. These two circuits can be supplied by a single multiwire branch circuit.
 
hillbilly1 said:
If you go by this rule, two circuits would be the minimum to the garage. Don’t know of anybody doing that short of putting a panel out there.
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A single MWBC can meet those requirements.


Added: Sorry, Don, hadn't seen your post yet.
 
480sparky said:
Where are outside receptacles and detached garages required to be AFCI'd?
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Again, I said nothing about the garage needing to be afic, what I said was using the same logic and definition that requires afci for smoke detectors even though they are not on the bedroom receptacle circuit because they are considered an outlet.
 
hillbilly1 said:
Again, I said nothing about the garage needing to be afic, what I said was using the same logic and definition that requires afci for smoke detectors even though they are not on the bedroom receptacle circuit because they are considered an outlet.
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I have no idea how you went from using the garage circuit for an exterior receptacle to using AFCIs for smokes.
 
480sparky said:
I have no idea how you went from using the garage circuit for an exterior receptacle to using AFCIs for smokes.
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The definition of an outlet. Smoke detectors are usually on a different circuit than the room receptacles, but are still required to be on afci because they are identified as an outlet. So if lights and smokes are said to be outlets, then the same can be said about the lights in a garage which are prohibited to be on the receptacle circuit. I was just using that as an example.
 
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