Change Summary

• Receptacle requirements for dwelling unit garages, basements, and accessory buildings expanded to two-family dwellings (not just one-family dwellings). At least one receptacle outlet is required to be installed “in each vehicle bay” and not more than 1.7 m (5½ ft) above the floor in dwelling unit garages.

Expert Analysis

For the 2017 NEC, the level of electrical safety has been extended to two-family dwellings as it has been for one-family dwellings for the past 10 Code cycles. The purpose of this rule is to help prevent the use of extension cords. The 2014 NEC increased the required garage receptacle count to at least one for each car space. This was intended to require a minimum of three receptacle outlets in a three-car garage, four receptacle outlets in a four-car garage, etc.

The 2017 NEC text at 210.52(G)(1) was further revised by changing the requirement for at least one receptacle outlet to be installed “for each car space” to “in each vehicle bay and not more than 1.7 m (5½ ft) above the floor.” The change from “for” to “in” each vehicle bay will eliminate the interpretation of one receptacle outlet being shared by two adjacent spaces. The term “car space” was changed to “vehicle bay” to recognize the fact that other vehicles such as pickup trucks, sports utility vehicles, tractors, and so forth could be parked in a dwelling unit garage as well as a car. The “not more than 1.7 m (5½ ft) above the floor” requirement removes all doubt concerning the receptacle outlet installed in the ceiling specifically for a garage door opener serving double-duty and also serving as the required receptacle outlet “in each vehicle bay.”

This revision also included the relocation of the requirement that the “branch circuit supplying these receptacle(s) shall not supply outlets outside of the garage” from this section of the Code to the new 210.11(C)(4) which pertains to required branch circuits for dwelling units. 210.11(C)(4) will still finds a requirement that this branch circuit serve no other outlets, but with an exception allowing readily accessible receptacles located outdoors to be supplied by this garage branch circuit. As a side note, lighting outlets in the dwelling unit garage are still required to be supplied by general lighting circuits and not allowed to be supplied from this newly required 20 ampere rated receptacle outlet branch circuit of 210.11(C)((4) to protect the illumination of the garage area in the event of an outage on the 20-ampere rated receptacle outlet branch circuit.