Three bedrooms on same circuit?

bottlerockett

Hey all,

I'm going to re-wire three adjacent bedrooms in my house. I want to put the receptacles for all three rooms on the same 20-amp circuit. about 6 receptacles per room, 18 in all.

Is that amount of receptacles within the limit of a 20-amp circuit, or too many? Lights and smoke detectors will be on separate circuits. Thanks.

k_buz

Sure...there is no limit on the number of receptacles on a circuit. Common sense is telling me that you should put them on two circuits, but its not necessary.

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Techy

Unless you're in Canada, or have a local code saying otherwise, there's no limit on devices per circuit

AllanJ

One routing stategy for two circuits is to run one to the wall between bedrooms #1 and #2 and the other to the wall between bedrooms #2 and #3. A circuit could serve receptacles on both sides of a wall.

Another strategy is to have three circuits, one for each bedroom.

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bottlerockett

Thanks for the feedback. The main reason for putting all three rooms on the same circuit is that I'm running out of breaker space on my panel.

kevinp22

you might consider running it so there is a junction box very close to the panel fed from the panel and then branching out to either 2 circuits or a circuit for each room. that way, if you ever put in a larger panel or subpanel you can easily separate them into multiple circuits (run the wires in such a way that you could put each into a panel later without having to splice them). If you first go to one bedroom and then branch out, that later change will be much harder.

Wish I had thought of that when I was starting my project, to be honest

gregzoll

20 amp is overkill for bedrooms. You would do fine to do the outlets on a 15amp circuit, and have the lighting on the same 15amp lighting circuit for the hallway & bath.

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DangerMouse

MY inspector would say to separate all 3 bedrooms to it's own 15 amp AFCI circuit.

DM

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Code05

Guess what I would say to that inspector. Hint: it would not be polite.

kevinp22

I would probably say with veiled sarcasm "I guesss that page fell out of my code book"

DangerMouse

Let me put it this way, that's what he made me do. I barely squeaked through with enough spaces on my panel. I was just about ready to go buy a new one or add a subpanel until I figured out a way to use a tandem for one space to make it two.

DM

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Code05

Just so we are clear here-you did it to shut him/her up, pass your install, and go away: I have done the same...

But no one makes me do something that is not written in code or amendments...

I may choose do it just to pacify an inspector if it minor, but if any real money or time is involved-nope.

bottlerockett

Thanks all! But I still don't get it. Why is it better to split up the rooms on two or three circuits for receptacles only? Why is this something an inspector might suggest, even if the anticipated load of the receptacles is well within the capacity of a 20-amp circuit?

Daniel Holzman

The reason for having multiple circuits is pretty simple. If you plug a 12 amp vacuum cleaner into one outlet on the circuit, and a 5 amp device into another outlet on the same circuit, you are close to blowing the breaker. If you have a lot of permanent devices on the circuit, like computers, lights etc., you are going to have to be very careful to avoid overloading the circuit. Not dangerous, just a pain.

IntexInspector

In my area of the continent ,the max would be 12 and of course they would be arc fault.