Wayne Whitney wrote:
In article 1095826040.700496@smirk,
wrote:


True. Here's why: Because you are in a basement, you'll need GFCIs.
This means either a GFCI breaker (big $$$), or an outlet GFCI. But
you want two circuits. This either means you get a 2-pole GFCI
breaker (about $100), and then you can run a single neutral, or you
use two outlet GFCIs. But if you use two outlet GFCIs, you can not
merge the neutrals back together again.


OK. But if you have a separate GFCI receptacle for every receptacle,
i.e. you never you the LOAD screws on the GFCI receptacles, then you
could get away with a shared neutral? Of course, all those GFCI
receptacles quickly add up to the cost of a GFCI breaker.

Cheers, Wayne



Actually, you can use the LOAD terminals, but it can get confusing
pretty fast so it's not necessarily a good idea -- you can't have a
shared neutral on the LOAD side of any device. I can think of a good
example where you might want to do this. Lets say you want two new 20A
120V circuits in your garage, and your garage is 100 feet from your
breaker box. To reduce the voltage drop when you're operating 2 heavy
loads at once, run 12-3 cable to the first double-gang outlet box and
install 2 GFCI outlets. Run half the outlets in the garage from the
load side of one GFCI and the other half from the load of the other
GFCI. You have to run separate neutral wires from this point on.

Bob