Wiring – Do I need to install GFCI outlets at each location for switched garage lights

gfciwiring

I am wiring up multiple switched outlets in garage ceiling for the garage lights and i am assuming they all need to be GFCI protected. So my question is must I install GFCI outlets after the switch for each outlet. It would mean two of the outlets would be GFCI and I am installing 2 LED lights to plug into each outlet that only are drawing .4 amps each. It seems kind of ridiculous to install GFCI for switched outlets dedicated to these lights.

Best Answer

Any GFCI device is capable of protecting any number of loads downline. At extremes, Europeans use one GFCI device for their whole house but this requires compromises that make it a bad idea here. Therefore, it is unusual to need more than one GFCI per circuit. Most of the time, when people fit multiple GFCIs on a circuit, there's a sad knowledge gap there, which is causing them to waste money.

GFCIs are not receptacles. Those things are GFCI+receptacle combo devices. They also make GFCI+circuit breaker combo devices, as well as standalone GFCI (they look like a receptacle, but with no pins, and the slang is "Deadfront"). There is no way to plug in anything to a breaker or deadfront, so their whole point is to protect downline loads. But GFCI+receptacles can do it too.

Regardless, as long as these receptacles are on the ceiling such that they're for obviously lights only and not readily accessible for other loads, ask your local inspector if you can exempt them from GFCI requirements. If you can't, using GFCI receptacles on the ceiling is prohibited. You need to be able to reach them to reset them! This forces you into a downline design. And another factor does too...

Putting a GFCI device downstream of a switch is bad design, and will play havoc with many models. In that case the GFCI needs to be upstream of the switch and feed both hot and neutral of the switch+light section of the circuit, so the GFCI proper is never switched. By nature it must be one GFCI.

Related Solutions

Electrical – Proper wiring for GFCI given switched circuit

Just wire the GFCI between the wiring and the disposal so that it's on the switch (often, you would daisy chain the switch off of the GFCI and have the switched device hardwired, but that doesn't solve your problem). So, in your diagram, the load side is where the current is coming in, the line side goes to the switch, and the disposal is obvious. What you'll have is:

              Switch (I'm guessing this is "line?" in your diagram)
               | | |
Line           W G B           GFCI   Plug  Disposal
Black ---------+ | +--B------- Black  =----B
Green -----------+----G------- Green  =----G
White ----------------W------- White  =----W

In the switch, the input is the white, even though it's hot in the wiring, and the output of the switch is black, since that's what becomes hot to the next device. When possible, I like to have my switch connected to a black and red wire, black always being hot, and red being switched. But that's usually not convenient, so this is the best an electrician can do.

Electrical – How to go about adding more receptacles to a garage

Step one - determine (or tell us) if these are all one circuit (and are there garage lights other than the opener and your bench lights, and are those on the same circuit as any/all the outlets, or not?)

Step two - there are rules of thumb, though they can be adapted to actual use-cases, such as your low-draw LED lights. Following them won't keep things happy if too many heavy-duty things are all running at once. Exceeding them won't make the circuit blow if 27 outlets each have a 10 watt LED light plugged in. 8 (duplex) receptacles on a 15 amp and 10 on a 20 amp circuit is one such RoT - I've also seen 7 suggested. As such your plan to add 4 duplex would fit within nearly every RoT on a 20 amp circuit with 3 outlets now. Also, you are running the same stuff now on the same circuit without trouble, which is a good sign, until you add more stuff running at the same time, or open the garage door while running a power saw and sprinkling the lawn.

If you have a panel/sub-panel in the garage, running a new circuit is probably worthwhile - if it needs to come from the house main panel, that may be more work and expense than you want to go to for a setup that works now from extension cords.

The wires for your outlets would run from the LOAD side of the GFCI (there may already be wires connected there if it's all one circuit in the garage) and then run to the first outlet, from the first to the second, etc.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Electrical – Proper wiring for GFCI given switched circuit

Electrical – How to go about adding more receptacles to a garage

Related Topic