GFCI circuit

Cossack

A knowledgeable salesman at HD told me that EACH GFCI outlet needed its own circuit in the circuit breaker box. I have seen some homes with several GFCIs in a kitchen and a couple in the bath. That would take up a lot of room in the box. Is he right?

Also, do I use 12 gauge cable and a 20 amp switch or do I have to have a special GFCI circuit breaker in the box?

Thank you.

JGarth

He is far from "knowledgeable".

Cossack

Supposedly he is a master electrician. I asked him this twice so I am sure this is what he said.

JGarth

No way is he a master with that advice.

mr500

GFCI can be on 1 breaker. You can have as many plugs wired with the gfci as u wish. Normal is 5-7 I believe.

No special breaker is required. The norm would be a 20amp breaker on 12/2 w/ Gnd.
Again Im not an electrician, but im sure a real one will chime in on this one.

chris75

Yep, but what a sales pitch...

bwinters12

He is not correct. Not only can you put other gfi's on the circuit, if you load side regular duplex receptacles on the circuit they will be GFCI protected as well.

wire_twister

Must be trying to boost the sales numbers for wire and breakers. What state issued him his master license, the state of dementia?

__________________
Jimmy

Life is tough, Life is tougher when you are stupid.

CowboyAndy

I try not to badmouth the employees there, but I never ask them questions. The only questions I will ask them is "where is... fill in the blank... located".

There are no formal education or training requirementsin the electrical field per se... only the training home depot gives them.


Depending on what these gfi's are for, you will use either 14AWG 15AMP , or 20AMP 12AWG. If it is kitchen or bath, then 12AWG wire with a 20 AMP breaker.

Even if it is a 20AMP circuit, you are allowed to use a 15AMP GFI receptacle and a 15 AMP switch, you just won't have the ability to plug in anything that actually requires above 15AMPS.

If you want downstream receps or lights to also be GFI protected, you hook the cable going to them from the LOAD side on the back, if not then to the LINE side.

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CowboyAndy

For once, I agree!

__________________

JGarth

Andy...

See you are READING....

Oh, Good Luck on getting into that apprentice program ....
bet you SO is goin' be happy you might get a job.

Shark

What is the advantage of using multiple gfci recpts on one circuit?

Regarding the original post, we were required to have a gfi recpt on either side of the sink on seperate circuits, in addition to having a dedicated circuit for a microwave recp., if I remember correctly.

Edit: This was for a kitchen remodel, rather than bath as noted in the original post.

chris75

Convenience generally, I would not want to walk very far to reset a gfi, let alone search the entire house for the gfi.

Randell Tarin

Is there any advantage to wiring GFCI receptacles in series, as has been suggested in this thread, rather than utilizing a GFCI breaker in the panel?

Would one method offer better protection over the other?

frenchelectrican

if you wired the GFCI repectales with line -load connection it can work but it get really annoy to find which one tripped

I just have one customer not too long ago he ran every and i mean every freaking repectale in the garage with GFCI [ it was over 18 to my last count] took me a while to find which one was tripped and he suggested me that i redo it make it work propely so i change the circuit a little and Volia!.,,
solve the major issue with it.

something like this

line -- GFCI load ---- line GFCI load --- line GFCI load --- > the same all the way.

that how it got me a while to fix that mess.

Merci, Marc