TigerPaws
Member
- Location
- South Carolina (near Charlotte, NC)
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer, Department Director
I came across a residential situation, and it’s been a long time since I did residential design work (mid-2000s decade). I’m now the director of electrical engineering for different company. I got my first state PE license back in 1992. My design team and I work primarily in the U.S. petrochemical field with occasional office spaces, restrooms, break rooms, conference rooms or lab spaces thrown in. However, I think this residential issue is interesting and worth discussion.
Here’s the situation, the residential buyer wants additional receptacles in the front entry foyer beyond what the electrician provided. (The house is still under construction.) Here’s a snip from a drawing that I added receptacles, dimensions, and centerlines to (based on quoted room sizes from the PDF brochure):
(Sorry, my CAD skills are sketchy at best; it took me a while to figure out how to scale the base figure to the right size and how to make the dimensions readable. (But, back in the day, I could hold my own at the drafting table.) Anyway, the electrician saw the foyer as an extension of the little hallway and put in one receptacle according to NEC 210.52(H):
However, when I read further down in the NEC article, I came across NEC 210.52(I):
In looking at these rules, it seems to me that the reference to the “hallway rule” [210.52(H)] can easily pull the teeth right out of the rest of the “foyer rule” [210.52(I)]. I find it difficult to think of a layout for a residential foyer that couldn’t, in itself, be considered a wide hallway. It seems to me that the foyer rule is almost unenforceable without an official definition of “foyer” or more guidance on when the rule is or isn’t applicable. As is, it’s kinda left to the installer (and maybe an AHJ) to interpret whether it applies. So, what possible difference could it make whether a foyer leads to a narrower hallway (with or without a cased separation) or a habitable room in how the space will be used? I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why that reference was put in the foyer rule in the first place. To me, it only seems to needlessly muddy the waters. For the reference to apply, does the hallway need to meet the 10 ft length outside of the foyer, or can the foyer length be added to the hallway length in determining its applicability? The wording seems just vague enough to throw that into question.
According to the NFPA NEC Handbook, the intent of the foyer rule is to allow people to plug in lamps or other utilization equipment without having to use extension cords. In this case, the buyer would need to run an extension cord across the wood floored entryway to plug in a table lamp along the foyer’s right-hand long wall. There’s not a single receptacle from the front door, along the right-hand walls, to the start of the little hallway, which is almost 18 feet of wall space. Had the electrician put the single receptacle on the opposite wall (the foyer’s long wall) the buyer probably wouldn’t have even thought about complaining because they'd figure they could just use extension cords as needed. Where the receptacle is, a piece of furniture with a lamp would probably interfere with usage of the main entry door. (It’s interesting that even with the 210.52 receptacle rules, common sense is still useful.
)
Since the hallway rule makes use of centerlines, I figured I’d draw some in to look at it from that point of view, and to see if there is a hallway length of at least 10 ft. There is, but only if you consider the foyer as part of the hallway; otherwise, the total centerline length of the little hallway is 5’-3”. However, I was surprised to see that the foyer’s centerline doesn’t even land in the little hallway – it hits the Powder Room wall. Would that be enough to require the use of the foyer rule? Or would some sort of trimmed-out separation between the foyer and the little hallway be needed for it to apply? I checked the square footage of this foyer and it’s a little over 74 ft2. (Not that it comes into play, but the walkable area of the little hallway is a little over 27 ft2.) Since the homebuilder labelled the space as “Foyer” in their brochure and purchase agreement contract (and presumably the construction documents), does that influence anything? To be honest, had it not been labelled that way on the floorplan, I probably wouldn’t have even thought to review the foyer rule. (Should “and Entry Hallways” be added to the title of the rule?)
Stepping out of my NEC comfort zone, I’m sure there are factors I haven’t considered. Who knows, maybe someone could explain the reference to the hallway rule in the foyer rule to me. It would be good to understand the reasoning behind it.
Here’s the situation, the residential buyer wants additional receptacles in the front entry foyer beyond what the electrician provided. (The house is still under construction.) Here’s a snip from a drawing that I added receptacles, dimensions, and centerlines to (based on quoted room sizes from the PDF brochure):
(Sorry, my CAD skills are sketchy at best; it took me a while to figure out how to scale the base figure to the right size and how to make the dimensions readable. (But, back in the day, I could hold my own at the drafting table.) Anyway, the electrician saw the foyer as an extension of the little hallway and put in one receptacle according to NEC 210.52(H):
However, when I read further down in the NEC article, I came across NEC 210.52(I):
In looking at these rules, it seems to me that the reference to the “hallway rule” [210.52(H)] can easily pull the teeth right out of the rest of the “foyer rule” [210.52(I)]. I find it difficult to think of a layout for a residential foyer that couldn’t, in itself, be considered a wide hallway. It seems to me that the foyer rule is almost unenforceable without an official definition of “foyer” or more guidance on when the rule is or isn’t applicable. As is, it’s kinda left to the installer (and maybe an AHJ) to interpret whether it applies. So, what possible difference could it make whether a foyer leads to a narrower hallway (with or without a cased separation) or a habitable room in how the space will be used? I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why that reference was put in the foyer rule in the first place. To me, it only seems to needlessly muddy the waters. For the reference to apply, does the hallway need to meet the 10 ft length outside of the foyer, or can the foyer length be added to the hallway length in determining its applicability? The wording seems just vague enough to throw that into question.
According to the NFPA NEC Handbook, the intent of the foyer rule is to allow people to plug in lamps or other utilization equipment without having to use extension cords. In this case, the buyer would need to run an extension cord across the wood floored entryway to plug in a table lamp along the foyer’s right-hand long wall. There’s not a single receptacle from the front door, along the right-hand walls, to the start of the little hallway, which is almost 18 feet of wall space. Had the electrician put the single receptacle on the opposite wall (the foyer’s long wall) the buyer probably wouldn’t have even thought about complaining because they'd figure they could just use extension cords as needed. Where the receptacle is, a piece of furniture with a lamp would probably interfere with usage of the main entry door. (It’s interesting that even with the 210.52 receptacle rules, common sense is still useful.
)Since the hallway rule makes use of centerlines, I figured I’d draw some in to look at it from that point of view, and to see if there is a hallway length of at least 10 ft. There is, but only if you consider the foyer as part of the hallway; otherwise, the total centerline length of the little hallway is 5’-3”. However, I was surprised to see that the foyer’s centerline doesn’t even land in the little hallway – it hits the Powder Room wall. Would that be enough to require the use of the foyer rule? Or would some sort of trimmed-out separation between the foyer and the little hallway be needed for it to apply? I checked the square footage of this foyer and it’s a little over 74 ft2. (Not that it comes into play, but the walkable area of the little hallway is a little over 27 ft2.) Since the homebuilder labelled the space as “Foyer” in their brochure and purchase agreement contract (and presumably the construction documents), does that influence anything? To be honest, had it not been labelled that way on the floorplan, I probably wouldn’t have even thought to review the foyer rule. (Should “and Entry Hallways” be added to the title of the rule?)
Stepping out of my NEC comfort zone, I’m sure there are factors I haven’t considered. Who knows, maybe someone could explain the reference to the hallway rule in the foyer rule to me. It would be good to understand the reasoning behind it.
