Kitchen GFCI Install

[ejkbeck]

Small kitchen has no GFCI outlets. To start, I found one line of outlets which has the fridge and some counter outlets. I believe I've pinpointed the outlet with the LINE to fuse panel (see figure on left).

Is the new wiring on the right correct? Also, I'm not positive about the 3 cables, any insight? Does it make sense the way it's currently wired?

I heard you shouldn't have a fridge on GFCI which should make the new wiring ok. What about a microwave, is it normal to plug microwave into outlet protected by GFCI.

Which brings me to final questions, is 20amp line enough for fridge (new energy star rated), microwave (900 watt + over stove fan and light), and room to spare for misc like can opener, mixer, etc (again, small kitchen so everything won't be running at once)?



Please school me, Thanks! ERIC

[John Nelson]

No can do.

There's not enough detail to give you a complete analysis, but you seem to have a multiwire circuit, and you cannot get downstream GFCI protection with such a circuit when both the red and black are still being used downstream.

The simplest thing to do, which requires no analysis whatsoever, is to simply put a separate GFCI receptacle at every outlet where you want GFCI protection, and use only the "LINE" side of each GFCI (leaving the "LOAD" side of each GFCI unconnected).

Depending on the exact power requirements of all that stuff, one 20-amp circuit may or may not be enough. Most likely it will, but you might occasionally trip the breaker if the microwave is running when the refrigerator cycles on. And I definitely would not run the microwave and toaster at the same time.

But you may actually have the power of two 20-amp circuits by virtue of your two hot wires (one black and one red). Just try to put any appliances that may run concurrently on receptacles using different hot wires. You may want to color-code your outlets (perhaps different color switch plates or colored tape or marker) so that you know which outlets are using the red and which are using the black.

Is this circuit, connecting the red, black and white wires, controlled by one 20-amp double-pole breaker? Or two separate 20-amp breakers?

[ejkbeck]

John, thanks for the reply. There is only one 20-amp breaker so I'd say it's a double pole. It appears the red is powering the fridge (one outlet, it's connected to the fridges black wire) while black is going to the countertop outlets. I'm only concerned about getting GFCI protection on the countertop outlets which is what I believe the new diagram is doing. I'll go ahead and connect it up and test, I just don't want sparks to fly, melting wires, and fire in the walls. If you see any red flags now is the time to let me know!

[classicsat]

You can do it, provided you have a larger enough box to comply with box fill. I did the exact same thing myself.

[ejkbeck]

I'm going for it. Good point on box fill. Thanks.

[John Nelson]

Sorry, I was wrong. I didn't look at your diagram closely enough. Since the red wire is going only to the refrigerator, your plan will work. I mistakenly thought the red wire also went elsewhere. I was confused by the fact that your grounding wire also looks red in your picture. For clarity, we usually leave the grounding wires out of our diagrams.

[french277V]

The other thing to remind ya if you really have breaker box instead of fuse box anytime you have MWBC { multiwire branch circuit } it will be very good idea to get legit two pole breaker for safety reason if you work on that junction box you have to kill two breakers.

Only one major golden rules with MWBC is never unhook the netural conductor anytime the voltage is there the reason why I warn this part if anytime the netural go bad or unhooked by some reason anything is on 120 volts will go up much as 240 volt { it will be close depending on what the load on the circuit } and other leg will drop down to low levels almost like seesaw thing.

Merci,Marc