ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues Usable wall space

Puck lights? a set of RF speakers? the charger for your Kindle?
It is not our job to decide what the receptacle will be used for, only to assure the ones defined in 210 are there.
If you are that convinced it is not necessary you can always 90-4 it but you do that at your own peril if the next owner (or his home inspector) wants to know why there isn't a required receptacle there.

As a design issue, it is almost always better to exceed 210.52, you should, at least, meet it. We have lots of stuff with plugs on it.

We've managed to get back to the topic of another thread: is "code minimum" really an opion?

I mean ... all his fuss over a bookcase ... while there's absoluely no rule agains putting a/the receptacle on either side of the thing! I need no be placed precisely at the 12-ft. mark!

Harold:

I have to agree with Gregs comments above.

Reno:

No, the 12 foot precisely is not how I understand the inquiry. The 'point' is to maintain the NEC required MINIMUM required receptacles within a room. In the real world, I know that after I sign-off on a final for one of the residences that had spacing issues, the 'required' devices were blanked off.

John and Greg,

I agree with everything said here and I realize that we do have a lot of things with plugs and that you don't need a receptacle exactly at the 12 foot mark. I am just playing devil's advocate, and sometimes questioning why we need such strict codes. I know I can use 90-4 and I get homeowners saying to me, "It's my house and if I don't want it, then why do I have to have it?" Then they will say,if someone else buys a house after I said an outlet wasn't required, then let them install if they want it."

I am sure we have all heard statements like that.

About only a millon times.

Harold:
A few variations have been granted for receptacle ommissions in islands and peninsulas for what the homeowners 'cited' as safety issues. Each was considered, and reviewed for justification. The 'under 6" overhang' was the cause of the request. Two had 5" overhang.

The next time I'm at my buddy's house, I'll setup a good reason that there should be a receptacle,take a pic, and post It!! I'll be sure to bring LOTS of extension cords!!!
12awg, of course!

What I should do is print out these pages, so that the next time I inspect something and the homeowner asks me these same questions, I can hand out these answers.

As PA said, "Only about a million times!"

I should do the same.

Greg,

This will be my last post about this topic, but another EC got into it with me over the weekend at the supply house. "If you had a built in window seat, it is furniture, not usable wall space. So therefore a built in book case is also not usable wall space". He also said that if you have a wall in an exercise room and the HO puts mirrors on the wall, then the receptacle will be behind the mirror and not accessible. I didn't have my responses from this forum printed out yet, so I couldn't give them to him. I tried to explain that "Usable" wall space is not in the code. He then said that we should use more common sense when we write the NEC. I asked him if he ever wrote in a proposal to the NEC, and of course the answer was no.