I was going to put a hardwired baseboard heater in this cool breakfast nook, but there's not room for that AND an outlet on the available wall space. NEC says you can't put a baseboard heater below an outlet (makes sense), but I really need an outlet on that wall. No problem, my Black & Decker book says this is circumventable by using baseboard heaters with built-in outlets. Well, they're out there, but Cadet, the mfr I researched, says the optional built-in outlet has to be on a separate circuit.
WHAT? The 1kw heater itself would only use 8.3 amps, and since 12/2 WG cable was roughed in for my 110V heater circuit why wouldn't the wire be good for at least another 8 amps?? Seems like a waste of perfectly good ampacity...if that's the word I want.
So now I'm leaning towards just putting in a 20 amp receptacle and plugging in one of those compact/efficient ceramic disc heaters. Only I'd like to use a programmable thermostat... Is there any reason I couldn't make one half of the wall outlet thermostatically controlled for powering a PORTABLE space heater?
Thanks!
Joe
