Switched outlet wiring requirement?

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Is there an NEC detail to wiring a switched outlet/outlets? Issues i'm thinking thru:

1) daisy chaining the switched circuit to multiple outlets
2) required to get power from the circuit on the unswitched outlet
3) wire size if sharing neutral or other
4) sharing neutral, how does the current return to the panel
5) can the switched outlet be on a complete seperate (break the neutral) circuit? This could put 240 in the box?

Geez!
 
Not sure what exactly you're asking but, wiring wise:

Run 14 or 12/2 feed to switch box, 12 or 14/3 out to switched receptacles, and use the same 14 or 12/3 between switched receptacles.

Use red as switch leg, break only hot side tabs of receptacles. You wont wind up with 240V at the receptacle, you might at the switchbox (eta: when measuring between ungrounded conductors of different circuits) depending on what breakers you're using for lighting circuit. Not a problem just keep lighting circuit and receptacle circuits neutrals isolated from one another (grounds can be tied together, neutrals cant - cant parallel small conductors, and your AFCI breakers will trip if you tie the neutral of different circuits together)

Red and black are the same 120V circuit, just one is permanent hot the other switched.

eta: your #3 and #4 do not come into play if wired as above.
 
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What's the problem? I feed the switch then run three wire from the switch location to each receptacle. Doesn't matter if you daisy chain or home run, depends on the layout. White= neutral, black=hot, red=switch leg.

Red and black to each hot screw of each receptacle after breaking off the shorting tab. If you want a receptacle to have both top and bottom switched, red only to the hots, don't break off the tab. If you don't want a receptacle to be switched, black only, don't break off the tab.

White as always to the other (neutral) side and you don't break off that tab! In this case neutral is only fed from one circuit so no sharing like you are thinking.

Can the switched outlet be on a complete seperate (break the neutral) circuit? This could put 240 in the box?
Click to expand...

You could but I don't know why you would want to and with residential it can be a problem because of AFCI requirements. Many ways to do this- I would run a three wire HR, (two circuits opposite phases on black & red) to the switch location. Switch the red, black continues through. Then you wire receptacles exactly as above, keeping in mind that now, if you daisy chain, the conductors must be pig tailed in the box. Yes, there would be 220v between the hots and a shared neutral. The only time you might have to upsize the neutral is if you were doing something like workstations or cubicles with a lot of equipment that uses switching power supplies that create harmonics.

The only time you would break the neutral tab is if you had two completely different circuits, each with their own neutral, feeding the top and bottom of a duplex receptacle. There may or may not be (and there doesn't have to be) 220v between the hots, it would depend on what breakers the two circuits were fed from.

-Hal
 
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If we get power at the outlet we then run 3 wire from the outlet to the switch box and dead end the neutral in the switch box, isn't the neutral required in the box by code, it is kind of a lighting circuit? Are there some code refs. to this.
Thank you.
 
The NEC is not a design manual. It's not going to have wiring diagrams for things like that.

Whether or not you need a neutral at the switch location is determined by whether one can be added in the future.
 
The code (404.2) requires a neutral in a switch box but there is an exception for a switched receptacle. You would only need two wires to the switch
 
Thank you Hal.
My goal was to get more power out of a duplex outlet at one station. One switched, one not. Two HR to this outlet.
 
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Remember, if you switch the entire receptacle then that receptacle cannot be used as the required outlet in art. 210.52
 
No on the 2 pole. Lower outlet on a 12ga-20A-15A receptical , upper switched 14 ga. from a light circuit. No rewiring from me, just verifying that more than a standard load could be used. Two circuits. The post might be a little confusing the way I approached it, talking about 240V.
 
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Single panel. I think that's what was bugging me about the 240 volt thing. There is no ganged breaker. Hmm.

So, both circuits should be on a single pole dual breaker 15A AFCI. 15A for the 14/2.
 
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Here's an easy work-around:

Turn power off to both circuits. Remove receptacle from wiring. Remove box from wall. Install 2-gang box. Install a duplex on the 20a circuit, and another duplex on the 15a circuit.

No more 2-pole circuit requirement.
 
Thanks sparky
Good idea. Maybe 2 boxes bonded. The next person might think the whole box is de-energized with one breaker. Stuff like this needs a spring mounted jack-in-the-box with instructions when opened. :)
 
You can't fix stupid. If a qualified electrician got into it and saw 14 to one device and 12 to the other, they should know enough to investigate further.
 
I would use a single 20a circuit with split-wired receptacles (half of every receptacle switched). "Mix" the circuits in the switch box if you have separate lighting outlets and circuits, not in the receptacle boxes.
 
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