I installed two outdoor garage lights using 14/2 MC Armorlite Cable. The lights are only 8.8 watts and have day/night sensors. I connected the wiring to a garage door opener dedicated 20 amp circuit on the ceiling. This circuit has one duplex 20 amp receptacle for the garage door opener plug. The new outdoor lights 14/2 wires are fed into that box. I now realize that the wiring is not correct. I should have used 12/2 wiring. Upon advice from a friend/electrician I replaced the 20 amp breaker with a 15 amp breaker and replaced the 20 amp receptacle with a 15 amp receptacle. Is this allowed? For safety, should I replace the wiring from the outdoor lights to the garage door receptacle with 12/2 wire?
Thank you for your advice.
Wiring for Outdoor Garage Lights
garageoutdoorwiring
Related Solutions
As recommended by wallyk and yurly, add another circuit or two. There is usually no way to tell exactly how may outlet and switches etc., are on the same circuit. If there is no spare breakers in the breaker panel, use tandem breakers. This will allow two circuits to reside in the same space as one.
There are tandem breakers available by all manufacturers, I believe.
These outlets will need to be GFCI protected if the garage door opener outlet isn't already that way, but yes -- there isn't a limit on how many receptacles can go on a general receptacle circuit.
Do double check to make sure that your circuit doesn't serve something else funky though.
Related Topic
- Breaker in garage keeps tripping
- Electrical – Should I upgrade #14 wiring on a 20 amp circuit to #12
- Garage door not operating correctly
- Electrical – Code requirements for adding several outdoor outlets around the garage
- Electrical – How to use a 15A momentary switch (switches) to replace the multi-button wall-mount garage door opener
- Electrical – Need some advice on re-wiring kitchen, one empty breaker left
- Electrical – Garage rewiring
- Wiring – How to porperly identify which sensor wires are which for the pre-wired garage door openers
Best Answer
Your friend gave you good advice. Breakers are sized by the smallest wire in the circuit. Since you added 14/2 to the circuit, a 15 AMP breaker is the maximum allowed. Replacing the receptacle was needed too. The 14/2 you installed is fine since you replaced the breaker.