Electrical – Would it be out of code to switch a receptical this way

electrical

I'm installing a door jamb switch for my pantry. I have a single receptable in the pantry (For powering puck/bar lights). Given the PITA it was to get fishtape around a corner into the door jamb switch, I'd like to only pull a two wire conductor conductor to the door jamb switch, but want to check if this is pretty much a universal code violation.

 ---   2 wire conductor (+ground) going to switch       ---
| * |--------------------------------------------------| * |
| * |--------------------------------------------------|   |
 ---                                                    ---
 |||
 ||| 3 wire conductor coming from line
 |||

Basically, a line feed would go through one side of the switch, and the other side would be the load leading back to the outlet. Is this majorly out of code, or is this something I can get away with?

Best Answer

You are probably OK on two counts:

  • the room is not considered habitable
  • the wiring is a switch loop controlling a receptacle rather than a direct wired lighting load.

This is covered by NEC 404.2(C). This is the 2014 version.

Note that not all jurisdictions subscribe to all NEC code, and some use older version.

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