Large Kitchen Island Outlets

Question

My island for my kitchen measures 144” x 50”. I will have outlets on each end in the waterfall edge. I was reading that I will need an outlet at every 48”. Do I have to put two outlets on top of the countertop. The only way I can think of doing this is adding two pop up gfci’s? What else could I do? I do not have any filler which could fit an outlet.

Answer 1

Your choices: pop up or dangle down

There are three basic ways to install receptacles in the middle of an island work surface that does not have a "step" or kneewall in it:

• Come up out of the work surface with a box
• Embed the receptacle into the work surface (using an in-countertop "popup" receptacle assembly)
• Use a pendant setup to dangle the receptacle box from what's above.

You've already covered the "popup" assemblies (generally, I'd put the GFCI upstream of the popup receptacle so that it isn't exposed to spills nearly as much), so this answer will discuss the other two options.

First, we have the pendant, which is a receptacle box and strain relief (cord grip) attached to a cord that is either plugged into what's above using a locking plug/receptacle combination, or simply hard-wired into the ceiling with another cord grip. This is a NEC-legal way of doing things provided the correct parts are used for strain-relief, and prefabricated pendant kits are available, but it does have the downside that it's considered to be a quite "industrial" look, which can be troublesome from an interior-decorating standpoint.

The other option is to have a box that sticks out of the work surface, supported by conduits or an integral mounting flange. While this can be done with a FSS or FDS type box and rigid conduits extending up from the floor, this is a faff, relatively speaking, and also limits what wiring methods you can use. A simpler and easier choice is to use an Eaton/Crouse-Hinds FSY box (shown below), which has an integral flange that can be screwed to the countertop, and thus is less vulnerable to mechanical damage than a FSS box while permitting a variety of wiring methods to be used to come up into it.

Answer 2

You say island that is 12’ by over 4’ wide.

in that case I would say yes you need an outlet within 2’ or 48” apart max.

if in a kitchen area now if each end go in 4’ and yes you need 2 more receptacles.

if you are slightly longer (I think 3”) I have seen inspectors call out 5 receptacles, one on each end 4’ in from counter top edge both sides and one in the center.

This is a real requirement if the inspector lets you go with 2 do it as if the waterfall is under the counter top they can measure from that point around the top to a max of 4’ so he could require 5.

put in 2 and be happy the inspector is not an AZZ.!!!

This was when the Italian granite was not in US measurements and the inspector flagged it and another receptacle had to be added.

So just make the add if the inspector gets picky a island they can measure point to point no space beyond 48” receptacle to receptacle or no space more than 24” from a receptacle.

In some locations you can have permanently mounted hanging cords but most don’t like that look.