renosteinke
Senior Member
- Location
- NE Arkansas
A reference to 225.30 in another thread makes me wonder a bit....
225.30 says, in essence, that a detached building can be supplied by only one source of supply. Fair enough, seems to make sense, except ... Let's look at a fairly common situation:
Imagine a house with a detached garage. Personally, I'm picturing the house I grew up in- a simple ranch-style house, with a 2-car garage set perhaps 15-ft away, slightly behind and to the side of the house- but no matter. What does matter is that there was an arrangement where lights on the face of the garage, the patio, and on the end of the house that bordered the drive were all controlled by the same switches. Flip one on, they all come on.
Now, let's compound this with a very common situation: The homeowner re-tasks the garage, to be a workshop, man cave, even separate apartment. He has a panel set, even a new service, to supply the increased needs of this garage.
Here's are the questions: Does that switch loop serving the outside lighting mean we now have a violation of 225.30? Is the switch loop a 'branch circuit?" Does bringing a neutral to each switch (as now required if you're using UF or NM) change your answer?
As I read 225.30, it appears that the NEC has now made illegal the very common, and sensible, practice of mounting lights from a common switch on different buildings.
225.30 says, in essence, that a detached building can be supplied by only one source of supply. Fair enough, seems to make sense, except ... Let's look at a fairly common situation:
Imagine a house with a detached garage. Personally, I'm picturing the house I grew up in- a simple ranch-style house, with a 2-car garage set perhaps 15-ft away, slightly behind and to the side of the house- but no matter. What does matter is that there was an arrangement where lights on the face of the garage, the patio, and on the end of the house that bordered the drive were all controlled by the same switches. Flip one on, they all come on.
Now, let's compound this with a very common situation: The homeowner re-tasks the garage, to be a workshop, man cave, even separate apartment. He has a panel set, even a new service, to supply the increased needs of this garage.
Here's are the questions: Does that switch loop serving the outside lighting mean we now have a violation of 225.30? Is the switch loop a 'branch circuit?" Does bringing a neutral to each switch (as now required if you're using UF or NM) change your answer?
As I read 225.30, it appears that the NEC has now made illegal the very common, and sensible, practice of mounting lights from a common switch on different buildings.