Electrical for finished basement

[kkurko]

I am in the process of running the electrical for my basement finishing project. I've looked at some of the builders wiring for other areas of the house and have noticed they installed 120v 15a electrial outlets on a 20amp circuit that uses 12 guage wire. Is it ok to wire the circut in this fashion? I prefer the look of the 15a outlets over the 20a outlets because of the opening the runs perpendicular to the plug opening. Is that common on all 20a outlets?

[Rich]

That is common on all 20a outlets. Regarding the 15a outlets on a 20a circuit - should be just fine. The 15a outlets won't draw more than 15amps anyway.

[Dano]

Rich,
Don't mean to correct you but feel I must..the 15A outlet will draw whatever the device plugged in needs..whether it's 3, 5 19 20 amps..the outlet knows no differance...the protection is @ 20A from the CB which means..worst case...if the device is drawing anything above 15 and under 20 the outlet will will begin to get brittle from the excessive amp draw and eventually fail...but your talking quite awhile in this scenerio.

[roger g]

Gotta agree with Dano. I must be missing something here on these 20amp receptacles. The 20 amp one I'm aware of are a different configuration that the two parallel slots and the semi round ground hole. and I've never seen them in a house. Any house. All our plugs look the same even in the kitchen which are 20 amp. A few years ago they used to be split receptacles with 14/3 wire.
Always ready to learn something I didn't know.

Roger

[Rich]

That's true Dano.. I was being pretty general in the statement regarding amp draw.

[bkiongo]

I believe I've seen these 20A circuits at my workplace. Whereas a normal (15A) receptacle has two parallel prongs, the 20A has perpendicular prongs. You may need this dependent upon what you plan to plug in, and the receptacle variation ensures you have a 20A CB.
But for daily non-specific use, the 15A receptacle in your configuration is just "over designed" behind the wall. You could feasibly cause this 'receptacle overload / burn', but I wouldn't think so - you're metal to metal prong to outlet. On the otherhand, I'd bet you could get a '2 parallel prong' outlet rated to 20A, too, if you prefered.

[dengle]

Unless i'm mistaken, i've seen 20amp outlets that look exactly like a 15, except one of the vertical holes is actually a T. so it could take a "normal" 15amp style plug or a 20amp plug.

[Tom R]

No, you're not mistaken, that's the kind I always use. (Generally speaking, you can use a 20 amp receptacle on a 15 amp circuit, but should not use a 15 amp receptacle on a 20 amp circuit).

[mjpliv]

You can also carry a 3/4 ton load in a 1/2 ton pickup. But only for a while. Eventually something gives and then you have a problem!

[Tom R]

Sorry, I re-read my post a day later, and thought "What am I saying? Let's just stick with 15 for 15 and 20 for 20.