"Wade Lippman" wrote in message
...


What you're proposing is fine. Bring your cable into the outlet box,
splice the two neutral wires together with a pigtail to the outlet, as
the neutrals of a multiwire circuit cannot be dependent upon a device,
and run your new hot leg for the new circuit to a circuit breaker
adjacent to the one feeding the outlet circuit

I was planning on taking the neutral off the outlet, so I appreciate you
pointing out that it is improper. Pigtailing is almost as easy.

I guess what you don't want is the neutral connection to the box breaking.
With a pigtail you lose everything or nothing, so you can't get a floating
neutral; is that the idea?

That is the idea, exactly, and as Bud correctly points out, the 08' NEC
requires the breakers of the two circuits to be tied. This may or may not
apply, as I know in my area we're still using the 05' code, but it's a good
practice to get into, to prevent Edison circuits from accidentally getting
screwed up