outdoor outlets - is there any sort of standard for spacing?

[mattkime]

while planning to address the insulation around my rim joists its occurred to me that I might think about everything that might pass through that spot - mainly new exterior electrical outlets. My house could use a bunch of these since it was build without any. But where to place them? Obviously one on each side of the house would be helpful but the house is kind of long so perhaps more than one is called for. I know the indoor standard is 'no more than six feet from any point to an outlet' but I'm sure I could go with something less than that.

Just curious if there's any sort of standard or expectation. There must be a rule of thumb for new construction but I haven't found it.

[MikeF]

[deckeda]

Put 'em in later. Just send a hole straight though to the outside and seal around it on both sides.

Whereas trying to cut around wires when sealing and insulating is not fun.

[mikebw]

deckeda wrote:
Put 'em in later. Just send a hole straight though to the outside and seal around it on both sides.

Whereas trying to cut around wires when sealing and insulating is not fun.

This is a great idea.

For my house, I would love to have an outlet at each corner as running an extension from the middle to any point where I might need it probably means blocking some doorway or other impasse.

[deckeda]

mikebw wrote:
[quote=deckeda]
Put 'em in later. Just send a hole straight though to the outside and seal around it on both sides.

Whereas trying to cut around wires when sealing and insulating is not fun.

This is a great idea.

For my house, I would love to have an outlet at each corner as running an extension from the middle to any point where I might need it probably means blocking some doorway or other impasse.
Easy to do. Just look at the photo at that Spruce link above. An outdoor box gets bolted the house with whatever length screws need to make purchase. That's just a 1/2" hole drilled from inside, or from outside if you really know where it's going.

They didn't seal it at the siding in the photo but they should have. And if you don't care about aesthetics mount it so that the conduit is above the outlet ... that way any water intrusion goes into the box and shorts it, instead of going into the HOUSE. << May not be code, but code won't always protect the house.

[Michael]

We have 2 covered porches and an attached deck. There's 2 on the front porch, each one about 10 feet from the front door (that's centered on the 60 foot wide porch). On the side porch, the door is at one end so the single outlet is 5 feet from that door (the porch is 20 feet long). Our deck is 32 feet long and the big door is toward one end. There's a single outlet on the longer side of the deck, right at the halfway mark of the deck. We have a drive-in basement and there are no outdoor outlets there but there are outlets right next to each of the garage doors. We also have a free standing deck 30 feet from the back porch and it has an outlet. So, including the garage ones we have a total of 7 outlets that are either outdoors or immediately accessible to outdoors. I have a small leaf blower with a 25 foot cord attached that I use to blow off all of those areas; it's nice to be able to do so with a short extension cord.

[mikebw]

deckeda wrote:
[quote=mikebw]
[quote=deckeda]
Put 'em in later. Just send a hole straight though to the outside and seal around it on both sides.

Whereas trying to cut around wires when sealing and insulating is not fun.

This is a great idea.

For my house, I would love to have an outlet at each corner as running an extension from the middle to any point where I might need it probably means blocking some doorway or other impasse.
Easy to do. Just look at the photo at that Spruce link above. An outdoor box gets bolted the house with whatever length screws need to make purchase. That's just a 1/2" hole drilled from inside, or from outside if you really know where it's going.

They didn't seal it at the siding in the photo but they should have. And if you don't care about aesthetics mount it so that the conduit is above the outlet ... that way any water intrusion goes into the box and shorts it, instead of going into the HOUSE. << May not be code, but code won't always protect the house.
All good points. I am not an electrician, but I don't think that style outlet is up to code anymore. When I installed the outlet on one front front corner I had my neighbor use his big masonry drill/bit, he said he always goes in at a slight upward angle from the outside, that way any water would not run down into the house.


Also, I used a deeper surface mount box similar to the above, that allowed the wire to run straight in the the back of the box and connect to the receptacle with no conduit. I put a healthy amount of silicone between the box and the brick over the top of the wire so again no place for water to flow onto the wire.