Installing two GFCI's, same box, 3 hots

8 years ago

I'm helping a friend install GFCI's in the kitchen in his older house. One existing double box currently has two regular receptacles, and three hot cables coming in that are on three separate breakers. One receptacle is connected to a 12 gauge Romex cable which I will replace with a GFCI. The other receptacle has the tabs connecting the upper and lower halves broken out, and there are two hot 14 gauge cables connected to it. Since there is no need to have three separate circuits at this location, my plan is to cap off one of the 14 gauge hots, and connect the remaining hot to a second GFCI. All the cables have grounds and I will wire nut them together with a pig tail attached to the steel box with a ground screw.

Does this all sound good or am I missing something here?

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Comments (5)

Ron Natalie
8 years ago
Are you in Canada by any chance? Splitting kitchen receptacles between two circuits is a (now deprecated) way of doing things up there.

The installation is already illegal under US laws. Is this protected by a 20A breaker? If not it should not have 14g wire connected to it. In addition, the kitchen receptacles need to be served by (at least) two 20A circuits not shared with anything else.

Are you sure all these hots are indeed feeds form the panels and not feeds to additional outlets?
kudzu9 thanked Ron Natalie
kudzu9
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Ron-

Thanks. I'm in a major U.S. city. The house is from the 1920's but with mainly updated, grounded wiring. (There is a small bit of knob and tube on separate circuits.) The 12 gauge is on a 20 amp breaker. The other two 14 gauge cables are each on 15 amp breakers. They may be at the end of a run, but I don't see how they could be feeds to other outlets since they are both hot when disconnected from the split receptacle, and there are no more cables in the box. The kitchen has two other receptacle boxes with 12 gauge wiring which will also receive GFCIs. This is not part of a remodel or rewire project; my friend would just like to change all the regular, grounded kitchen receptacles to GFCIs.

Further thoughts?
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DavidR
8 years ago
That sounds like a kind of weird setup. It may have been done by a low-clue DIYer. That would argue for looking things over carefully.

That said, if the AWG 14 cables come from other receptacles, you can just change the other receptacles to GFIs, and have downstream protection with the existing receptacles. Stick the little "GFI protected" stickers on the receptacles.

If they're homeruns from the panel, you can install deadfront GFIs somewhere between panel and kitchen. Alternatively, you can install GFI breakers in the panel (more expensive).
kudzu9 thanked DavidR
Ron Natalie
8 years ago
Ok, I'm beginning to understand now. Replace the one that is there now with a single AFCI on the 20A circuit. Find the next outlet on the 14g circuits and put the GFCI there for those.
kudzu9 thanked Ron Natalie
DavidR
8 years ago
> Find the next outlet on the 14g circuits and put the GFCI there for those.

Previous receptacle, actually, if you're "counting" from the source (the main panel).
kudzu9 thanked DavidR