AskCodeMan

GFCI receptacle on the exterior, is the receptacle reset required to be on the exterior and not inside the garage? 2005 home.

Hi Richard,

Then (2005), and now (2009), the exterior receptacle outlets and the garage receptacle outlets are allowed to be on the same circuit(s).

The GFCI protection for those receptacles is allowed to be at each receptacle, at the first receptacle on the circuit with the rest of the receptacles being protected by feed through wiring of the circuit at that first GFCI receptacle device, or even fed from another circuit which does not have GFCI protection but the circuit for the garage and exterior are GFCI protected by a GFCI receptacle device, or at the panel protecting the entire circuit.

Sounds complex but all the above is really saying is that the GFCI protection is allowed to be located anywhere as long as the receptacles required to have GFCI protection have GFCI protection.

The 1978 house we bought up here in Ormond Beach, Fl, had the GFCI for the garage and the exterior receptacles in the garage, I changed *each* receptacle in the garage (there are 6 of them) to a GFCI receptacle device and *each* exterior receptacle (there are 5 of them) to a GFCI receptacle device.

*For convenience* ... that is the reason I did that, because *I* want to be able to reset the GFCI at each location, such as in our bathroom, two receptacles about 6 feet apart, *each* is a GFCI receptacle device. Same with *each* kitchen receptacle, *each* has been replaced with a GFCI receptacle device.

Codes only require "minimum" levels of safety. Code are not good, better, best practices, nor necessarily even convenient practices, codes are simply *the minimum* one is allowed to do.

The above is why I would always ask my clients if the builder advertised the house as a "minimum house" or a "luxury" "custom" "quality" home? Not one single client ever responded that they were knowingly buying a "minimum" house, to which I told them stop their builders mid-sentence as soon as the builder says "But, it meets code ..."

Nope, first and foremost, it (whatever was being referenced) did not meet code and was documented as such with a code section, and secondly, is the builder admitting to false advertising or bait and switch by advertising a "luxury" "custom" "quality" home and only providing the minimum required by law: a "minimum code" home? No builder wants to go there if they are thinking straight.

Hope the above information helps.

Codeman