soffit wiring


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Old 05-21-06, 06:48 PM
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soffit wiring

I am planning to build a soffit in my living room to contain approximately 6 recessed light fixtures. My question is short of adding a new circuit, what is the best way to power them? The room currently has 5 wall outlets and a ceiling fan on one 20 amp circuit. Is it possible to remove a an end of run receptacle and use it as a junction box? Thanks.
 
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Old 05-21-06, 07:53 PM
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If this circuit does not feed any recepticals in the kitchen, dining room, or bathroom, and it is not an ungrounded circuit, you can probably extend it. In this case, you would run your new wiring from any receptical. It is preferable (but not required) to run from an "end of run" receptical, simply because it's box probably will not become overfilled by adding additional wiring (unless it is a smaller box than the other recepticals have).

You will not, however, want to eliminate the receptical. Doing so will most likely violate the spacing rules in the electrical code (the so called 6-12 rule). Instead, the receptical just becomes like the other recepticals that are not "end of run"...it will have two sets of wires connected to it instead of one.
 
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Old 05-22-06, 04:30 AM
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Before you proceed, consider how you use these receptacles. If you have a home entertainment center plugged into them then you likely do not want to add the increased load of 6 lights, especially if the lights are significant load. Likewise if you use a computer on this circuit.
 
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Old 05-22-06, 03:03 PM
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Thanks very much.
 
 

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