Chip C writes:
On Jan 6, 6:01Â*pm, blueman wrote:
I have an Edison circuit with 12/3 wiring feeding a duplex outlet with
one circuit and associated outlet dedicated to a basement freezer. The
other outlet of the duplex pair is on the other leg and used for general
purpose.

Can I continue the wiring from that one leg to feed other outlets
downstream using 12/2 wiring (dropping the conductor for the dedicated
freezer outlet) or do I need to continue to feed the 12/3
wiring everywhere?

Note the outlet box with the split Edison duplex is labelled as such.

The problem is that, as long as that freezer duplex outlet is a split
receptacle, you need to have the two hot legs on linked breakers. That
means that if anything on your new receptacles tripped its breaker,
your freezer's breaker would go out. This is not good wiring practice,
and may actually be against code, in that code often requires such
things as freezers and sump pumps to be on their own circuits, for
obvious reasons.

That is a good practical point. But luckily I don't use that other
outlet much. And since it is a basement freezer, I'm not sure the NEC
applies as it would in the kitchen. But I'm just guessing on that.
Nevertheless, I will think about your point...

You should plan to quit using the other half of the outlet that's at
the freezer, in fact I'd put a simplex outlet in there. Then rewire
that outlet so it's entirely on one leg; the red leg, say. Then I'd
run all the downstream outlets off the black leg. You'd put one of
them close enough to pick up whatever you were plugging into the other
half of the freezer outlet.

That is how it is wired now - with the exception that I added a bar to
tie the two halves together (which as you pointed out has some
negatives).

Now, because you don't have both legs feeding any one "strap" (ie, any
two outlets on the same duplex device) I *think*, depending on the
exact wording of code that applies in your area, you can now unlink
the two breakers.

I don't know myself.

Of course you must make sure the two hots are on
different legs of the panel, but that *really* should already the case
(check it, while you're at it).
It is definitely that way!.

You should probably change the label
on the freezer outlet to say something like "power in this box is
controlled by two separate breakers".

Already so-labelled...