Basement wiring question
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Central NJ
Posts: 131
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes
on
0 Posts

I am finishing my basement. The basement will have two rooms and a bathroom. I have already wired two 20 A circuits, one used for all basement recessed lights and another for all basement receptacles. I also need to wire washer/gas dryer, a 1.5 HP or 2 HP sump pump, 2 HP sewage pump and a bathroom. I can only get three additional 20 A circuits. How should I use them to wire aforementioned fixtures? There are four fixtures and only three circuits available? Should I use current 20 A receptacle circuit for bathroom (lights and CFGI receptacle controlled by a switch) and place washer/gas dryer, sewage pump and sump pump on dedicated breakers?
#2
So you will have five 20-amp circuits total, right?
1 Code says you must have one for the bathroom, not counting the ejector pump, with nothing outside the bathroom on that circuit.
2. Code says you must have one for the laundry area receptaces, with nothing except laundry area receptacles on it.
3. You should dedicate one circuit for the sump pump.
4. You should dedicate one circuit for the ejector pump.
5. That leaves you one circuit for all the receptacles and lighting. It's not much. At code-minimum rates, this can cover up to 800 square feet. That's probably enough if you don't have anything power-hungry down there.
I'd try really hard to get at least one more circuit, so that you can split up the receptacles and lighting. I'm not sure what your constraint is that limits you to five, but it can probably be circumvented.
There are quite a few code constraints that must be followed. This leaves you few degrees of freedom.
1 Code says you must have one for the bathroom, not counting the ejector pump, with nothing outside the bathroom on that circuit.
2. Code says you must have one for the laundry area receptaces, with nothing except laundry area receptacles on it.
3. You should dedicate one circuit for the sump pump.
4. You should dedicate one circuit for the ejector pump.
5. That leaves you one circuit for all the receptacles and lighting. It's not much. At code-minimum rates, this can cover up to 800 square feet. That's probably enough if you don't have anything power-hungry down there.
I'd try really hard to get at least one more circuit, so that you can split up the receptacles and lighting. I'm not sure what your constraint is that limits you to five, but it can probably be circumvented.
There are quite a few code constraints that must be followed. This leaves you few degrees of freedom.