A 20 amp receptacle is designed to accept the special plug on heavier use appliances and if such an appliance plugs into a 15 amp circuit there is a danger of drawing too much power and.
Kitchen outlet nec. Nothing has modernized the kitchen more than the nec guidelines for the outlets serving the countertop areas. Kitchen gfci receptacles installed on those 20 amp circuits must be also 20 amp rated. So what actually happened a public input was received by code making panel 2 cmp 2 towards a change in the number of receptacle outlets for kitchen island locations within a dwelling unit. The nec code requires at least two separate circuits to the kitchen counter top receptacles.
The 2017 nec has cleared that up. While kitchens from the 1960s and earlier may have had enough outlets for just a few appliances today s kitchens have at least two 20 amp circuits called small appliance circuits primarily devoted to the countertop receptacles and almost no space on the counter is more than 24. For 5 kitchen gfci receptacles serving countertops there should be a minimum of 2 circuit breakers or two fuses in your electrical panel one protecting 3 of those outlets and second responsible for other 2 or 4 1 it doesn t matter. Kitchen counter top receptacle circuits.
Single family dwelling kitchen requirements 2005 nfpa 70 new construction requirements nec 210 52 b 210 8 a 6 ucc reconstruction code kitchen small appliances. Technically in this case the 2014 nec would not require a single receptacle in the wall behind the fixed cabinets. A public input was received by nec code making panel 2 cmp 2 on the number of receptacle outlets for kitchen island locations in a dwelling unit. The following is an explanation of the electrical code requirements for kitchen counter top receptacle circuits.
Small appliance circuit countertop space wall and hallway space. The nec doesn t specify the number of receptacle outlets you must have in the kitchen but it does have a specific requirement for outlets serving counter spaces more than 12 inches long. If you have not done electrical work for a few years you may be surprised by this requirement. If a fixed cabinet has a countertop then it is included in the wall space measurement.
Now only a fixed cabinet without a countertop or similar work surface can break up the wall space measurement. Electrical code requirements for kitchen counter top receptacle circuits. This is what happened to changes that occurred in the 2020 nec concerning the kitchen island and receptacle outlet requirements. This is exactly how changes in the kitchen island and receptacle outlet requirements in the 2020 nec came about.
There can be no part of the countertop farther than 24 inches from an outlet which means that the maximum spacing between countertop receptacles is 48 inches.