Kitchen Remodel Electrical Scope

Purpose

Build the kitchen's electrical scope from the cabinet elevations and the appliance schedule, so that every circuit on the quote traces to a drawing dimension or a nameplate. The old kitchen tells you almost nothing about the new one: cabinet runs move, an island appears, a gas range becomes induction, and the receptacle that was legal on the old wall line is 8 in inside a new pantry.

The failure this prevents is the change order nobody can defend. A scope written off the existing kitchen produces a circuit count that is short by two, discovered when the cabinets are set and the countertop template has already been cut.

Scope

Covers producing and installing the electrical scope for a residential or small commercial kitchen remodel: countertop receptacle layout, small-appliance branch circuits, fixed appliance circuits, lighting and controls, and the protection each circuit carries.

Does not cover the decision to upgrade existing kitchen and bath circuits on a partial remodel, owned by the kitchen and bath circuit upgrade SOP; whole-house load capacity, owned by the addition circuit planning and service upgrade SOPs; under-cabinet luminaire selection and installation, which has its own SOP; or the pre-inspection self-check.

Roles and handoffs

Procedure

1. Collect the cabinet plan, the elevations and an appliance schedule carrying a model number for every appliance. Acceptance: each countertop run dimensioned on the plan, each appliance listed with volts and either amperes or watts read off its nameplate or its specification sheet. Wrong looks like a schedule reading "range, 30 in." Stop rule: an appliance not yet chosen is entered at the largest rating in its class and flagged on the sheet, so a later substitution is re-checked rather than assumed. Hazard clause: none at this step, a takeoff at a desk.

2. Confirm the code edition and local amendments the permit was issued under, and write them on the scope sheet. The island and peninsula receptacle provisions and the ground-fault requirements in NEC 210.8 and 210.52(C) have both moved materially between recent editions, so this is the one page of the code where working from memory reliably produces a failed inspection. Acceptance: edition year and amendments named, and the relevant articles pulled from that edition rather than from a note. Wrong looks like an island receptacle installed to the edition the tech trained on. Stop rule: where the edition cannot be confirmed, the office calls the authority having jurisdiction before layout. Hazard clause: none at this step, a desk decision from the permit file.

3. Lay out countertop receptacles by measuring the wall line on the cabinet plan. NEC 210.52(C) requires a receptacle outlet at each wall countertop space 12 in or wider, positioned so that no point along the wall line is more than 24 in measured horizontally from a receptacle outlet. Acceptance: every countertop segment 12 in or wider carries one, every gap between adjacent receptacles measured and at or under 48 in, and each end of a run within 24 in of one. Wrong looks like a receptacle centred on a run rather than measured off it. Stop rule: a gap that fails takes an added receptacle now, on the drawing, not a note to sort out at trim. Hazard clause: none at this step, measurement off a drawing.

4. Assign the small-appliance branch circuits and write down what is allowed on them. NEC 210.52(B) requires two or more 20 A small-appliance branch circuits to serve the countertop, refrigeration and dining receptacle outlets, and it limits what else may share them. Acceptance: at least two 20 A circuits scheduled, every countertop and dining receptacle assigned to one, and the split written so no single circuit carries the whole counter. Wrong looks like a coffee maker and a toaster on the same leg because both receptacles happened to be on the same wall. Stop rule: any load the article excludes from these circuits, including most fixed appliances, comes off and gets its own. Hazard clause: none at this step, schedule work.

5. Give each fixed appliance a circuit sized from its nameplate, not from habit. Read volts and amperes or watts off the plate, convert, and size the conductor and overcurrent device against the ampacity table at the termination temperature rating the equipment allows. Acceptance: a schedule line per appliance carrying its nameplate figure, the computed amperes, the conductor size and the device rating. Wrong looks like a 50 A range circuit specified for an induction cooktop whose plate reads higher, or a shared dishwasher and disposal circuit where the article requires otherwise in the adopted edition. Stop rule: an appliance whose nameplate exceeds what was quoted stops the schedule and goes back to the office as a change before rough-in. Hazard clause: none at this step, arithmetic from nameplates.

6. Place lighting circuits, luminaires and switches against the elevations, including the door swings. Acceptance: at least one switched lighting outlet per NEC 210.70, every switch located on the latch side of its door and clear of the cabinet and backsplash details drawn on the elevation, and a separate circuit for lighting so a tripped small-appliance circuit does not leave the room dark. Wrong looks like a switch box landed behind a pantry door or inside a tall cabinet return. Stop rule: where an elevation and a field dimension disagree, the field wins and the elevation is corrected in writing before the box is set. Hazard clause: none at this step, layout on open framing.

7. Assign protection circuit by circuit and total the panel spaces the schedule needs. Ground-fault protection for kitchen receptacles and for specified appliances is set by NEC 210.8 in the adopted edition, and arc-fault requirements by 210.12. Acceptance: each schedule line carrying its protection type, plus a total space count with two-pole devices counted as two. Wrong looks like a schedule that clears on circuit count and fails on spaces because the range breaker was counted as one. Stop rule: where the space count exceeds what the panel has free, the shortfall goes to the customer as a subpanel or panel change before rough-in, not after. Hazard clause: none at this step, arithmetic and a written verdict.

8. Rough to the sheet, then energize at trim and verify every protective function. Isolate, lock and tag under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2) and prove dead on a known live source before and after per NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5 before landing anything in the panel. Acceptance: correct voltage and polarity at every new receptacle; each ground-fault and arc-fault device tripped and reset on its own test button; each fixed appliance run once and its circuit confirmed to hold; every pre-existing circuit in the panel confirmed still live. Wrong looks like a dishwasher that runs while the ground-fault device protecting it will not trip on its button. Stop rule: a protective device that fails its test is replaced before the crew leaves, never left in service because the appliance works. Hazard clause: energizing a kitchen puts water and electricity in the same room with the customer present, so the counters are clear, appliances are seated and not being handled, and the crew stands to the hinge side of the panel rather than square in front when a breaker closes.

The record this produces

One kitchen scope sheet per job: the cabinet plan revision it was built from; the adopted edition and amendments; the countertop wall-line measurements with each gap figure; the small-appliance circuit split; a line per fixed appliance carrying nameplate, computed amperes, conductor and device; the lighting and switch schedule with any field correction; the protection type per circuit; the total space count against free spaces; and the trim energization results.

The office reads the appliance lines whenever a substitution comes through, because a swapped cooktop is the single most common cause of a circuit that no longer fits. The estimator reads the space count before the cabinet order. The gap measurements are what settles an inspection question about a receptacle spacing without anybody re-measuring a finished counter.

Worked pass: galley kitchen with an added peninsula, 2020 NEC jurisdiction

Step 1: plan revision C, with a nine-line appliance schedule carrying model numbers. Step 2: jurisdiction confirms the 2020 NEC with local amendments, so 210.52(C) and 210.8 are pulled from that edition and the island and peninsula provisions read from it directly.

Step 3 fails on the sink run. The run measures 96 in of continuous counter, with receptacles drawn at 18 in and 74 in from the left end. The gap is 74 minus 18, which leaves 56 in, so the midpoint of that gap sits 28 in from each receptacle and exceeds the 24 in limit by 4 in. The right end checks out at 96 minus 74, which leaves 22 in, inside 24 in. Stop rule taken: one receptacle is added at 46 in, which splits the 56 in gap into 28 in and 28 in, and no point is now more than 14 in from a receptacle. A separate 14 in counter segment beside the range gets its own, since it exceeds the 12 in threshold.

Step 4: three 20 A small-appliance circuits rather than the two required, splitting the sink run, the range wall and the peninsula, so no single circuit carries more than four countertop receptacles.

Step 5: the range plate reads 12.0 kW at 240 V, which is 12,000 divided by 240, or 50.0 A, so a 50 A circuit on 6 AWG copper at the 75 C column. Dishwasher 12.0 A and over-range microwave 12.5 A each take a dedicated 20 A circuit, and the disposal at 7.5 A takes its own 15 A circuit.

Step 6: one switched ceiling lighting outlet plus under-cabinet, both on a separate 15 A lighting circuit. The elevation put the entry switch on the hinge side of the door, corrected in writing to the latch side before the box was set.

Step 7: nine circuits, with the range on a two-pole device, so ten spaces required against eleven free. Clears with one space spare. Ground-fault protection assigned per the 2020 edition to every countertop receptacle, the dishwasher outlet and the receptacles within 6 ft of the sink bowl; arc-fault assigned per 210.12.

Step 8: isolated, locked and tagged, proved dead on a known live source before and after. Every new receptacle reads correct voltage and polarity, all ground-fault and arc-fault devices trip and reset on their buttons, the dishwasher and disposal each run one cycle without tripping, and every pre-existing circuit in the panel is confirmed live before the crew leaves.

References

• NFPA 70, National Electrical Code, in the edition your authority having jurisdiction has adopted: 210.8 ground-fault protection, 210.12 arc-fault protection, 210.19 branch-circuit conductors, 210.52(B) small-appliance branch circuits, 210.52(C) countertop and work surface receptacles, 210.70 lighting outlets. Pull the island, peninsula and ground-fault text from that edition; it has moved between recent cycles.
• 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2) for electrical work practices, with proving per NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5.
• Appliance manufacturer installation instructions for nameplate ratings, dedicated-circuit requirements and termination temperature ratings.
• See related: kitchen and bath circuit upgrade on a remodel; under-cabinet and accent lighting installation; rough-in inspection readiness.