USB wall receptacles

[Sam Leon]

As a landlord about once a year I like to pay a visit to my tenantts and properties around the end of the year.

Basically to talk to the tenant, sort of get some feedback, any issues, anything they like to see added or changed, give them a status report on pending improvement items, and while I am there I give a quick tour of the property and may change a few simple things.

I have a running list of things for each property. May be new washing machine hoses, may be all brand new drawer pulls, or a new microwave...whatever.

So this year I picked up a couple of dozens of USB wall receptacles from an online sale, and I noticed everyone likes to charge their tablets and phones on the kitchen counter. Not the counter space next to the sink, but the other side and on islands. So I decided to just change out most of the existing receptacles near a dry counter space to one of these:

Now, all kitchen counter receptacles have to be GFCI protected so these need to be on a GFCI breakers or they need to be connected downstream on the load side of a GFCI receptacle.

They were a BIG HIT to the tenants! HUGE! I swear if I had given them $50 gift cards they won't have been so appreciative.

AFTER I finished installing them all at my properties I came across on a totally unrelated item which required that I look up some electrical code...

Specifically 210.52B1 and 210.52B2, which states that SABC along kitchen walls counters and floors are to serve small appliances - toasters, coffee machine etc...and can't be used for anything else - not even be used for a desk lamp or under cabinet lights...HOWEVER, now we have USB receptacles built in on these receptacles so even they have small amp draws, technically it's a code violation!

I am debating whether to go back and pull them all off.

I am checking with code reviewers to get some clarity on these USB piggy back outlets if they are classified as "OTHER outlets".

Lesson learned to check code BEFORE or LATER.

Of course you can also do this without a screw driver.

[Edward Burns]

I might be stretching things, but now days you can build a case that a tablet and even a smart phone are kitchen appliances. I know when I cook, I often pull up recipes from the internet and I'm sure others do also. I also have a wall mounted phone in the kitchen that has a sound booster on it. For the sound booster to work, it must be plug into a wall outlet as well as a phone jack, which according to strict interpretation of the code sections is illegal but recommended by the State (I am severely hard of hearing). So I guess what I am saying is this section of the code is out-dated and I would not worry about conforming with it.