[Albatraz]

Rather new to this forum, as well as household electrical. I am in the process of remodeling my garage. I have completed the majority of work, excluding electrical. I have a 2 year old home, and when the house was built, they only installed 1 (one) receptacle (GFCI) in the garage. As I am sure most of you know, you cannot have just one recept in the garage. What I am planning on doing is tapping off of that GFCI recept and into a hard wired power strip (made for racetrack wiring), and then from power strip, up the wall (using the racetrack) and into a switch, then up to the hard wired shop light underneth my cabnets. In hopes, this is what I would like to happen. I am not too concerned about the look of the raised racetrack, because I am planning on covering that wall with a peg board anyways, hiding the raceway.

My questions start with the GFCI. When I pulled the recept out of the wall, I found what looked to me like this was in the middle of a run. Like I stated previously, that is the only thing is on that circuit. In the box, there is 2 romex wires coming into the box. So I have 2 sets of black/white/ground, the grounds are twisted together and ran to the recept. The whites both have a small pigtail (I beleive that the romex was initially cut to short, and this is used to lengthen it to the recept), and the blacks are the same way as the whites. Now on the rear of the recept, there are 4 holes out of 8 being used. Does this sound correct? And can I still tap off of this recptacle? Any help would be great. I hope I made myself clear, and I think I might go take a picture of it to post in here for you. Thanks

Albatraz

 

[Albatraz]

Ok, I went and took some pictures to post. Im lost with this one. Apparently, there looks like there is 2 romex wires coming into the box, and spliced together, then going to one of the outlets. There is one romex wire coming into the box and going to the other outlet. The 3 ground wires are spliced together. I'm not sure if it is in the middle of a run, or if this is the proper wire configuration. Can I still tap into this recept?

 

[junkcollector]

It looks like to me that you have three cables coming into that box. (two entering the top knockout, one comming in the bottom). So this cannot be the only thing on the circuit, it could be on the same circuit as the lights, or your door opener or outdoor receptacles. What size breaker is it on? As yourself, what will I be plugging into this circuit? I would kill the breaker and test what else is on the circuit. If you find not much on the circuit and only plan on using only small tools, than you can tap in. Don't expect to run a large compressor or big tablesaw though. it looks like #14 to me. (just a guess...)

I would probably opt for a new circuit from the panel if possible...

 

[Albatraz]

Yeah, I am just going to opt out of that GFI and install a completely new circuit. I think it will be much easier than to screw with that one. I also have my invisible fence for my dogs on that receptacle, so screw it. Now I am going to install a 20A breaker with 12/2 wiring, to ensure that I wont overload it (I use larger power tools often). I am going to go from the breaker to a new GFCI. Now my question is can I ponytail off of the new GFCI, and from that ponytail, splice it to two different lines? I want to use one to go up the wall for my floresant work light, and then one down for a multi-recepticle hard wired power strip. Is this acceptable?

 

[kbsparky]

I can't tell from your photos which set of wires are the "line" and which is the "load"

Either way, there are other things on that circuit, this is certain. And, there is at least one other outlet that is downstream protected by this GFCI device.

You may obtain better long term performance, if you can install a new circuit for this garage project.