required gfci protection in garages and basements.

Status
Not open for further replies.
W

wireman3736

Senior Member
Location
Vermont/Mass.
Looking for other opinions, 1st duplex receptacles are installed in a basement and garage with 8' ceilings for the plug in of 4' forescent shop lights, when installing the lights it's determined that not as many lights are needed that was originaly planned, this causes some of the duplex receptacles not to be used. The question is, are these open receptacles required to be gfci protected, I say no but a fellow electrician I know says yes.
 
210.8(A)(2)
Garages, and also accessory buildings that have a floor located at or below grade level not intended as habitable rooms and limited to storage areas, work areas, and areas of similar use
Exception No. 1: Receptacles that are not readily accessible.

210.8(A)(5)
Unfinished basements — for purposes of this section, unfinished basements are defined as portions or areas of the basement not intended as habitable rooms and limited to storage areas, work areas, and the like
Exception No. 1: Receptacles that are not readily accessible.

Receptacles installed under the exceptions to 210.8(A)(5) shall not be considered as meeting the requirements of 210.52(G).

How high are the recepts?
If 8', I'd say not readily accessible.
JMO
 
I agree that there not readily accessible at 8', but then again I'm 6' and I can stand on my tip toes and grab down on the cord and work a plug into a receptacle at 8'. Too bad they don't list a distance AFF,
 
bikeindy said:
make them up and put blanks on them problem solved.
Click to expand...

That would solve the problem if infact there is a problem. The question was if there required to be or not. If there not required to be gfci protected then why add the time and material to correct something that may not need correcting. Who knows they may want to add lights in the future.
 
wireman3736 said:
That would solve the problem if infact there is a problem. The question was if there required to be or not.
Click to expand...
The mere existence of a question is considered by some people to be a problem.
 
I consider a question to be more education then a problem, It's hearing other peoples opinions and keeping an open mind that I enjoy. But then there are people that don't need to ask questions because they already have all the answers, how boring a life that must be to have all the answers. Imagine if no one ever asked a question in school, we would need less teachers and have lower property taxes. :) :)
 
There is a max height for required residential receptacles to meet spacing so why wouldn`t the same height apply to gfci receptacles in a basement or garage.Now we do have a local addendum that takes the required GFCI receptacles and can put them as far as 15 ft aff but this is in a flood zone area.Also the service disc. must also be above this flood level but one thing puzzles me is that the metering equiptment can still be within the flood zone to comply with the pocos 5 ft 6 in to center requirement.
 
wireman3736 said:
That would solve the problem if infact there is a problem. The question was if there required to be or not. If there not required to be gfci protected then why add the time and material to correct something that may not need correcting. Who knows they may want to add lights in the future.
Click to expand...

Well I saw Celtic give you the answer and you were still unsure if that was ok. My first impression was to agree with Celtic for your answer but thought if I had a question if a inspector would say something about it or not I would simply make them up and blank them. If I did leave them as Receptacles and they were on a switch and a inspector said something I would probably respond, "those aren't receptacles they are lighting outlets and not required to be GFCI protected I might even put single receptacle devices in to make sure." But as I stated above I think Celtic gave you the answer.
 
wireman3736 said:
I consider a question to be more education then a problem, It's hearing other peoples opinions and keeping an open mind that I enjoy. But then there are people that don't need to ask questions because they already have all the answers, how boring a life that must be to have all the answers. Imagine if no one ever asked a question in school, we would need less teachers and have lower property taxes. :) :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I couldn't stand when people asked questions in class. cuz I wanted to be bored out of my mind and I thought school was already long enough.
 
celtic said:
210.8(A)(2)
Garages, and also accessory buildings that have a floor located at or below grade level not intended as habitable rooms and limited to storage areas, work areas, and areas of similar use
Exception No. 1: Receptacles that are not readily accessible.

210.8(A)(5)
Unfinished basements ? for purposes of this section, unfinished basements are defined as portions or areas of the basement not intended as habitable rooms and limited to storage areas, work areas, and the like
Exception No. 1: Receptacles that are not readily accessible.

Receptacles installed under the exceptions to 210.8(A)(5) shall not be considered as meeting the requirements of 210.52(G).

How high are the recepts?
If 8', I'd say not readily accessible.
JMO
Click to expand...

A few of us could reach them at 8 foot.
 
For my 2 cents....I don't consider receptacles in a 8' ceiling to be "readily accessible". If a 8' was "readily accessible", I wouldn't need a step ladder to install a ceiling fixture.
steve
 
This is one of those NEC issues that will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The AHJ is the entity who will define 'readily accessible'. Out here in southern CA. the local chapter of the IAEI encourages debate on these issues and tries to build consensus on how a vague NEC article will be enforced in our region. Once in awhile it accually works.

Bob
 
I guess I was just looking for another controversial question, Maybe if the inspector is 7'-6" it would be a violation and if he was 4'-9" it would not. I wasn't looking for answers to correct something just opinions on if others thought it was allowed by the nec. I believe it would not be a violation but ahj may disagree. And as my good friend Forrest once said,

And thats all I got to say about that.:cool:
 
"You rang?"

lurch1.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top