From: "Fred"



The outlet/receptacle in my garage for my sprinkler timer is a single,
20-amp outlet. I went to replace it with a dual 20-amp outlet so I
could plug more than one thing at a time in. In doing so, I discovered
that this circuit is controlled by a 15-amp breaker (this circuit also
contains another 15-amp GFI outlet in my garage).

It's a new home, still under warranty. I reported this to the builder.
Two concerns:

1. Maybe it is supposed to be a 20-amp circuit and they tried to make
it look like one with the 20-amp outlet. All other add on outlets to
the house are 20-amp. The outlet for the sprinkler timer is an add on
since the front yard landscaping was an option. I don't think they'll
ever tell me for sure if that should have been a 20-amp circuit and
they forgot to put it in, so they piggy backed off of the exisiting
15-amp circuit in the garage.

Is it possible this is a singlex, 15a receptacle? It may be an innocent mistake
that a 15a singlex, non-gfci'd receptacle was supposed to be installed
specifically for a sprinkler timer, and a 20a singlex was mistakenly installed
as they're more common.


2. Is it legal for them to put a 20-amp outlet on a 15-amp circuit? I
asked this question. The builder said "for the sprinkler timer, they
are allowed to use a single 20-amp outlet/receptable even though it is
a 15-amp circuit." What??? That doesn't make any sense.

Am I being BS'ed? I cannot get access to the NEC code book to research
this myself. My county uses the 2002 NEC.
Thanks in advance for any input.

Mike