I built a deck on the back of my house last year and installed a new breaker and a handful of outdoor electrical outlets. I wanted one outdoor outlet to be switchable via a smart outlet, but my smart outlets aren't waterproof so it had to be inside the house.
As a solution, I installed a GFCI next to my breaker panel. I have my unswitched outlets coming off the load side of the GFCI so they are protected. For the switched outlet, I installed a plug onto the end of the UF wire run so I could plug it into my smart outlet.
This is the part that seems iffy. I think I'm good on bend radius and wire support, it's not subject to continuous flexing and it's relatively protected from damage due to the remote location of the panel (although I could protect it further). It just doesn't quite feel right to have a permanently-installed circuit plugged into an outlet, despite being a clever solution to my problem.
I'm using a 15A non-AFCI/GFCI breaker and 12 AWG UF wire. I ran 12 in case I ever wanted to upgrade the circuit to 20A, but my smart outlet is only rated for 15A anyway.
Is there anything in the NEC that prohibits this? I have access to a full copy of NFPA-70 2014 and would like specific references.
I'm willing to change whatever I need to be code-compliant, but I still want to be able to be able to switch my outdoor outlet via some sort of smart-home device.
Best Answer
It does violate the NEC (assuming that you are in the US and the NEC applies to you). UF cable is not designed to connect to portable cord devices, portable cord devices are not designed to accept UF cable. Article 110.3(B) states: "Listed or labeled equipment shall be installed and used in accordance with any instructions included in the listing or labeling." You will not find any instructions with the listing or labeling saying you can do this, ergo you cannot.