electricalreceptacle
I'm installing a few new outlets in my unfinished basement and what I have currently is a 20 amp circuit and I have a 20 amp GFCI outlet hooked on to that. I'm looking to add another standard 15 amp outlet off the 20 amp GFCI.
I know you can do 15 amp outlets on a 20 amp circuit but what I'm wondering is it ok to have a 15 amp outlet along with a 20 amp outlet on the same 20 amp circuit as I would want the 20 amp GFCI outlet to provide protection to the 15 amp outlet.
Thanks
You should never chain two GFCI circuits together. When you install a GFCI circuit, you should only ever chain standard outlets off of them. Multiple GFCI on the same circuit can cause each other to trip.
So yes, what you want to do is actually what you should do.
What you do need to do, however, is make sure you connect the new outlet to the LOAD terminals on the GFCI outlet. That will put the new outlet on GFCI protection.
You should also sticker the new outlets as GFCI protected.
See in the above how the duplex (standard) outlet is fed from the GFCI, NOT the main line.
And in case it's unclear- the 3 gfci in the pic are not chained - they are connected in parallel. Only the standard outlet is "chained" - or connected in serial.
Yes, look carefully at a GFI (or equivalently GFCI) outlet:
You can see the terminals at the top are labeled Line which means, upstream power. The pair of terminals at the bottom are labeled Load, which means this is where to connect outlets downstream which are protected by this GFI.
Be careful not to bridge the line terminals to the load terminals! A pigtail should only connect to the load terminals.
Best Answer
This is legal and will work fine. But you do need to use #12 wire because the circuit is protected by the 20 amp breaker. (you can add more if needed.) I say this because the GFCI outlet is 1 device and the 15 A outlet is the 2nd. If there were only a single 15 amp outlet, it would not be code. But with 2 or more, it is ok. NEC 210-21.b1