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Combining the two, they say that homeowners are allowed to do electrical work in their own homes if they have a license -or- a permit.
The electrical board is concerned with who has/needs a license, what is required to get one, etc. The local jurisdictions decide when a permit is needed.
Returning to a subject touched on earlier in this long thread ... I now have good information from an official source: Greg Vance, Chief Electrical Inspector for Wake County.
Question: Is there a limit to the number of receptacles (outlets) permitted on a 15a branch circuit? 20a branch?
Answer: There is no limit in residential construction. In commercial construction, generally, outlets are calculated at 180VA per yolk so 10 outlets on a 15A circuit and 13 outlets on a 20 A circuit.
Returning to a subject touched on earlier in this long thread ... I now have good information from an official source: Greg Vance, Chief Electrical Inspector for Wake County.
Question: Is there a limit to the number of receptacles (outlets) permitted on a 15a branch circuit? 20a branch?
Answer: There is no limit in residential construction. In commercial construction, generally, outlets are calculated at 180VA per yolk so 10 outlets on a 15A circuit and 13 outlets on a 20 A circuit.
Make sure you follow up and post a thank you too!!
I love that forum, and really like that Wake does that. Anything government can do to make it easy for homeowners to do things to code is a huge bonus.
Thank you for this citation. As I read it, paragraph 5a is even more to the point...
I'm groping for the truth and find no contradiction between (5a) and the quote given in post #9. The first says homeowners are allowed to do electrical work in their own homes without a license, and the second says homeowners are allowed to do electrical work in their own homes, but must get a permit. There's no inconsistency.
Combining the two, they say that homeowners are allowed to do electrical work in their own homes if they have a license -or- a permit.
Let me be clear on this point: I favor the freedom of all homeowners to do their own work without permits.
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I think the approach (and it passes the common sense test) is you are allowed to do your own electrical work, with a permit, but not if you plan to imminently sell your house (I believe town of cary was 1 year when I finished my basement). In other words, they want you to live with your work, where presumably you would fix it in the year following it. The idea is to make house flipping trade work be done by licensed trades people.
Thanks everyone for your help, catching up on the thread and finally had a moment to take some pictures.
I'm attaching pictures of the outlet.
Right now, the outlet comes out on a finished wall on one side, but the back side is unfinished and I have access to it. There are 5 wires attached to the outlet, 2 black, 2 white, and a ground.
What I want to do is to keep this existing outlet, but tap into it and create a new outlet 2 feet above this one, facing the unfinished side. I'm thinking best route would be to move this existing outlet up 2 feet, turn it around to face unfinished side, then splice into it and add wire and a new outlet 2 feet lower where the existing one is.
Worst case (easiest to do), is just to move this existing outlet up 2 feet, flip the side it faces, and do nothing else (and lose the existing outlet facing the finished side).
I hope this is a DIY job. If not, any electrician recommendations would be great as well (PM me if you want).
Thanks again!
Thanks everyone for your help, catching up on the thread and finally had a moment to take some pictures.
I'm attaching pictures of the outlet.
Right now, the outlet comes out on a finished wall on one side, but the back side is unfinished and I have access to it. There are 5 wires attached to the outlet, 2 black, 2 white, and a ground.
What I want to do is to keep this existing outlet, but tap into it and create a new outlet 2 feet above this one, facing the unfinished side. I'm thinking best route would be to move this existing outlet up 2 feet, turn it around to face unfinished side, then splice into it and add wire and a new outlet 2 feet lower where the existing one is.
Worst case (easiest to do), is just to move this existing outlet up 2 feet, flip the side it faces, and do nothing else (and lose the existing outlet facing the finished side).
I hope this is a DIY job. If not, any electrician recommendations would be great as well (PM me if you want).
Thanks again!
"What I want to do is to keep this existing outlet, but tap into it and create a new outlet 2 feet above this one, facing the unfinished side. I'm thinking best route would be to move this existing outlet up 2 feet, turn it around to face unfinished side, then splice into it and add wire and a new outlet 2 feet lower where the existing one is."
Makes sense to me, although you will end up with a lot of looped cable to secure. If I was doing it, I might leave that box in place and cut into one of the cables, add wire from the new box to the old box to allow for enough wire to work with to complete the run. And doing that avoids entirely the discussion below.
If the existing box is adequately sized for 3 conductors, it would be easy to feed a third wire into the bottom, loop up, and add a new box with just the one wire in it.
Is it 14 ga or 12 ga wire?
If it is 12 gauge, that box will need to be minimum 22 cu. in. (cubic inches.)
(I think.... And, stand ready to be corrected... )
Makes sense to me, although you will end up with a lot of looped cable to secure. If I was doing it, I might leave that box in place and cut into one of the cables, add wire from the new box to the old box to allow for enough wire to work with to complete the run. And doing that avoids entirely the discussion below.
yeah you are right, i could just splice into the existing outlet and double back and run it back up again. i guess i need to read up on how to splice and attach wires together
You cannot cut into wire outside a box. It must terminate in a box. To pigtail wires together you use the yellow twisty ties and they must be enclosed in a junction box.
Alternatively you can just branch off of the existing outlet, and just attach your 14/2 to your existing outlet, run it out the box and into the new one, then put it on the new outlet. Basically daisy chaining the two outlets together. Run a new length of 14/2, open up a knock out opening in the existing junction box, feet the new wire through. Open up the last 6" or so and strip about 1/2" or so (guide on back of outlet if backstabbing). Your outlet should be set up to handle an additional source and just add the wire to the correct side. The white/black should have a separate screw. While most "online" sources will tell you this is not the preferred method (preferred is pigtailing in theory) I will tell you most homes are going to be wired like the below...
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Here are the pictures
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