Not long ago, I was contacted by an electrician to provide my interpretation on whether a recent installation he performed was Code-compliant. This electrician told me he was frustrated with the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ), who had a different interpretation of the rules than he did. In fact, the AHJ failed one of his installations because of it.
The electrician explained that there was an existing 125V, 15A duplex receptacle installed on the other side of the wall in a hallway, but directly below where he needed to install a receptacle for a microwave in the kitchen. He was easily able to snake a cable from this existing hallway receptacle outlet to a new receptacle outlet located in the cabinet above the range where a microwave (range hood type) would be plugged in. The AHJ failed this installation, citing a violation of Sec. 422.16(B)(4)(3) because this was not an individual branch circuit.
My initial reaction was to agree with the AHJ. However, the electrician insisted an individual circuit was not mandatory. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with him.
Let’s start by looking at Sec. 90.5(A), which tells us that mandatory rules use the terms “shall” or “shall not.” Section 90.5(B) explains that permissive rules identify methods that are allowed but not required and will use the terms “shall be permitted” or “shall not be required.” A closer review of the wording in Sec. 422.16(B)(4) reveals that this is not a mandatory rule, but rather a permissive rule. In fact, this Section does not prohibit anything. It gives permission to use flexible cords under five specified conditions, but at the same time, it does not limit their use to only those five conditions. The first paragraph specifically says a microwave can be cord- and plug-connected “where all of the following conditions are met.” However, that paragraph does not say “only where all of the following conditions are met.” This was the subtle but significant difference that the electrician was relying upon to make his decision to snake a cable from an existing outlet.
The intent of all the rules in Sec. 422.16 may, in fact, be to restrict cord-and-plug connections to “only” those specified conditions, but the literal wording does not quite get there. When in doubt, it’s always best to ask your AHJ. In this case, it may have been best to ask the AHJ for his interpretation before the installation was performed. This would have saved this electrician from redoing his work.
