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Neutral wire in a multi wire circuit with some GFCI outlets

Neutral wire in a multi wire circuit with some GFCI outlets


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Old 02-24-14, 06:47 AM
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Neutral wire in a multi wire circuit with some GFCI outlets

Hi everyone, I have a question. I have a multi wire circuit with GFCI outlets. I want to make sure that it's OK to pigtail the neutral before the first GFCI outlet. My one hot goes to my refrigerator outlet and the other hot goes to the countertop outlets that are GFCI. The only way I can get this to work is if I pigtail the neutral before the 1st GFCI, at that point the 1 neutral goes to the GFCI, the other goes to the outlet for the refrigrerator. This is the only way I can get everything to work, I just want to make sure this is to code. Thanks.
 
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Old 02-24-14, 06:59 AM
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Yes you can connect pigtails from the multiwire branch circuit conductors to the ground fault circuit interrupter receptacle, and continue the MWBC (neutral with either or both hots) to additional outlet boxes downstream.

Connect the (hot and neutral) pigtails to the line side of the GFCI unit. Nothing (other than possibly a continuing 2 conductor cable not part of the MWBC) is connected to the GFCI load terminals.

Note: The various kitchen receptacles altogether need two 20 amp circuits' worth of incoming power. So you will need to continue both hots of the MWBC to each additional outlet box. Or leapfrog 2 conductor cables off of the load terminals of two GFCI units (one on each half of the MWBC) to additional plain receptacles.
 

Last edited by AllanJ; 02-24-14 at 07:19 AM.
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Old 02-24-14, 07:21 AM
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I want to make sure that it's OK to pigtail the neutral before the first GFCI outlet. My one hot goes to my refrigerator outlet and the other hot goes to the countertop outlets that are GFCI. The only way I can get this to work is if I pigtail the neutral before the 1st GFCI, at that point the 1 neutral goes to the GFCI, the other goes to the outlet for the refrigrerator.
Not only can you, but it is a code requirement to pigtail the neutrals where the circuits split.
 
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Old 02-25-14, 04:42 PM
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Thanks for the replys. The hot wires in the first box are different colors than the hot wires coming off on the breakers so I'm assuming there is a junction box in the crawl space (haven't been down there yet). Would I be able to split the neutral at that junction box? I need to pull some new wire to the refrigerator box so I would prefer to just run that hot and neutral right thru the 1st box so I could save room not having those extra wire and wire nuts in there. Is splitting the neutral in that junction box OK, or does it have to be done in first box with the outlet?
 
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Old 02-25-14, 07:18 PM
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Yes you may run a multiwire branch circuit into a junction box, tap off one hot and the neutral with a 2 conductor cable continuing elsewhere, while the MWBC continues on in a different direction.

The 2 wire cable can be treated as an ordinary (non-MWBC) circuit or subcircuit.

Should you wish to tap off one hot (and the neutral) of the same MWBC a second time, it is suggested you use "the other" hot. Just for the sake of balancing the probable total load over both halves of the MWBC
 
 

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