20A GFCI on 15A circuit

glen2

16 years ago

I sit okay to install a 20A GFCI duplex receptacle on a 15A circuit ? Thanks.

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Comments (6)

davidandkasie
16 years ago
yep, but it will only ever have a max 15 amp load on it since that is all teh breaker and wire will support.
Ron Natalie
16 years ago
Nope, not legally.

You can put a 15A receptacle on a 20A circuit but not the other way around see Arts. 210.21, 406.3
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A bathroom should have a 20A circuit. Note that only things in one bathroom can be on that circuit, or else only receptacles from multiple bathrooms on that circuit and the lights & fan on other circuits. The 15A switches are fine for loads that don't need more than 15A no matter which breaker size you have. You should be ok with the power coming to either switch and daisy chained to the other one. Some electricians prefer and a few jurisdictions require you to pigtail short wires to the switches from the incoming hot all in a wire nut. The NEC does not require this except for special situations that I don't think apply to your job (primarily the neutral of a multiwire 120/240 circuit). But whether or not you should be doing this, it is not related to your tripping breaker except as it might have added to confusion on which wire was which. The tripping breaker says you have a short somewhere due to miswiring the switches or else downstream at the light and fan, or maybe a hot wire is touching neutral or ground. I would start be disconnecting the loads from the switches and trying them one at a time to see which causes the problem. Next I would go to the light or fan and disconnect its incoming hot to see if it was the device or something like a nail in the cable running up to it.
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Yes, it is standard practice to use 15A receptacles on 20A circuits. There is no need to use 20A outlets in a kitchen unless you have an appliance that requires a 20A plug (in which case you'd need a 20A dedicated circuit anyways). They really any more heavy duty than a spec grade 15A, as the 15A receptacles are rated for 20A of current to pass through, they just don't have that T-slot. Personally, I view multiple 20A receptacles on a single circuit as sloppy practice. I would argue that multiple 20A receptacles on one circuit would make it more possible to overload the circuit with more than one high-draw appliance that should be on a dedicated 20A circuit. The only time I use 20A receptacles is for a single outlet dedicated circuit.
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davidandkasie
16 years ago
i stand corrected then, i was thinking you could since the other way was allowed.
bus_driver
16 years ago
ronnatalie is correct. Such an installation would be harmless except that it does accept a 20 amp plug but the circuit does not have the ampacity to handle such a load.
DavidR
16 years ago
I don't know that I can guess what reasoning the code board used for this reg, but I suspect they don't allow a 20a recept on a 15a circuit for the same reason they don't allow a 30a recept on one. The user can't plug in an appliance that requires that much current, because the circuit hasn't the capacity, so why suggest that he can?

Now, if you are talking about a GFI that's rated 20a for passthrough and 15a for its own recept, that's a different matter. I don't see any problem with that.
Ron Natalie
16 years ago
DavidR's reasoning is right. An appliance that requires a 20A circuit would have a 20A plug to discourage people from plugging it into 15A receptacles (on presumbaly 15A circuits). There's a special exemption for multiple 15A receptacles on 20A circuits, but just about everything else requires the circuit and the receptacle pin configuration to match.

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20A GFCI on 15A circuit

Comments (6)

davidandkasie

Ron Natalie

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