Electrical – MWBC for split kitchen receptacle

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When installing a split receptacle in a kitchen, where the top and bottom are each their own circuit, is there any way you can use an MWBC, or is your only option to run two normal circuits with two separate neutral wires? I can't think of any code-compliant way to do an MWBC here that wouldn't require a double-pole DFCI breaker, which to my knowledge doesn't exist for any type of panel. In the past, this was easy since AFCI wasn't required in kitchens, and double-pole GFCI breakers do exist. Also, if this is impossible now, is it also impossible now to install NEMA 6-15 or 6-20 receptacles in kitchens? Because I don't think 240V GFCI receptacles exist, and without them, wouldn't you need a double-pole DFCI for that too?

Best Answer

There are a couple of tricky ways to do what you're after, but they aren't all that great

It is still possible to run kitchen small appliance branch circuits as split-receptacle MWBCs (vs. double-duplex MWBCs or solutions based on separate branch circuits), but it takes some panel gymnastics to do so for the reason you describe (namely, the lack of two-pole DFCIs on the market). In particular, you have the choice of:

  • a GFCI protected common feeder using a 2-pole, 50A GFCI to protect a subpanel with 2-pole, 20A AFCIs in it
  • using individual "spa box" sized panels with GFCI breakers in them (you can even use actual spa panels for this) as subpanels off 2-pole, 20A AFCIs
  • or using a single large box to mount several unit mount GFCI breakers individually fed from 2-pole, 20A AFCIs in the panel.

The first approach is the simplest and cleanest to implement using "conventional" parts, but has the downside that a GFCI trip takes out all the kitchen receptacles. The second and third approaches avoid this, but at the cost of either multiplying boxes at the panel or using harder-to-get boxes and breakers (Eaton (QCGFT) and GE (THQC...GFT) make lug-lug/unit-mount GFCI breakers, but they're not exactly home-store items, and you'd need a cutout box and brackets to mount them in/with, too).

Given that, it's probably simpler to have a conduit run out to your kitchen receptacles, so you can pull in extra wires for 240V outlets (which don't need AFCI protection), more circuits, or what-have-you. This doesn't have to be terribly expensive, either, as it can be done using ENT ("smurf tube") since that's a mains-legal wiring method in most places that aren't Chicagoland (where you're already using conduit to begin with) or NYC.

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