Electrical – Dedicated Laundry Room Circuit

code-complianceelectricallaundrylightingwiring

I live in Florida. According to the Florida Residential Building Codes (2017):

E3703.3 Laundry circuit. A minimum of one 20-ampere-rated branch circuit shall be provided for
receptacles located in the laundry area and shall serve only
receptacle outlets located in the laundry area. [210.11(C)(2)]

Can this circuit also supply overhead lighting in the laundry room, and also adjacent rooms? I ask because the definition of a receptacle outlet is defined as (Chapter 35):

RECEPTACLE. A receptacle is a contact device installed at the outlet for the connection of an attachment plug. A single receptacle is a single contact device with no other contact device on the same yoke. A multiple receptacle is two or more contact devices on the same yoke.

RECEPTACLE OUTLET. An outlet where one or more receptacles are installed.

At first glance I would say laundry code reads as ...shall serve only receptacle outlets, and those receptacle outlets shall be located in the laundry area.

However, immediately following, the FBC goes on to define bathroom circuits:

E3703.4 Bathroom branch circuits. A minimum of one 20-ampere branch
circuit shall be provided to supply bathroom receptacle outlet(s).
Such circuits shall have no other outlets. [210.11(C)(3)]

Exception: Where the 20-ampere circuit supplies a single bathroom,
outlets for other equipment within the same bathroom shall be
permitted to be supplied in accordance with Section E3702.
[210.11(C)(3) Exception)

This specifically calls out "outlets", which I believe includes overhead lighting — but, in the laundry room, it calls out receptacle outlets.

OUTLET. A point on the wiring system at which current is taken to supply utilization equipment.

Does this mean that, receptacle outlets excluded, the dedicated laundry circuit can still supply outlets in other rooms? Particularly shared lighting? Can it provide lighting in the laundry room?

EDIT: I guess my confusion comes from the code specifically mentioning a limitation on receptacle outlets but not outlets in general, as to where the bathroom code, which does the same, specifically calls out that Such circuits shall have no other outlets whereas laundry does not make this very specific point.

EDIT 2: Here is the Florida Building Codes

Best Answer

This is really NEC language in disguise, so we can look there for details

While you are reading the Florida Residential Building Code, which is based on the International Residential Code, the section numbers in the IRC that begin with E are special in that they are basically a subset of the NEC, applicable only to residential buildings:

This Electrical Part is a compilation of provisions extracted from the 2017 edition of the NEC.

As a result, for further guidance in interpreting the Electrical Part of the IRC, we turn to the correlating NEC sections (cited in brackets), starting with 210.11(C)(2):

(2) Laundry Branch Circuits. In addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section, at least one additional 20-ampere branch circuit shall be provided to supply the laundry receptacle outlet(s) required by 210.52(F). This circuit shall have no other outlets.

This clearly states that the laundry small appliance branch circuit shall have no other outlets on it, which means that it cannot supply any lighting loads.

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