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I am trying to refine and finalize the cabinet layout for my kitchen remodel project. One new run of cabinets will form an L-shaped peninsula, as shown here:

Diagram of a kitchen cabinet layout for a 90 inch by 60 inch, L-shaped peninsula, with cabinets placed back-to-back not having a knee wall between.

In similar layouts I've seen a knee wall built behind the cabinets, usually to support a countertop overhang for a seating area but also useful as a space in which to run plumbing and wiring. However, in this layout I have no overhang/seating area and no plumbing, so I decided to omit the knee wall and add 12" deep cabinets along the back side of the peninsula.

I'm planning to install a slide-in electric oven/range that requires a 40 A dedicated circuit. I'll also need a 20 A circuit for outlets. I definitely don't want conduit or cables running through the visible and/or usable areas of the finished cabinets, where they could be a nuisance or a safety hazard; I also don't want to make my electrician's life miserable, or their invoice any higher than it needs to be. For those reasons, I'd like to understand:

What's the right way to route these circuits? And what are the implications when I'm putting together my cabinet order?

Additional Info

  • The foundation in this area is raised.
  • Both circuits will be a new run to the service panel.
  • The stove can be wired either via conduit OR via power cord and receptacle.
  • Here's a diagram showing the manufacturer's recommended location for supply outlet, when a power cord is installed:
  • Here's a diagram showing the rear of the appliance:
  • I'm planning to have a recessed toe kick area on the two "inside" faces of the peninsula, and flush toe kick/base trim everywhere else.
  • No cabinets open into the extreme left or right side of the layout, only the top edge and the "inside" faces.
  • My local permitting agency requires compliance with the 2019 version of the California Electrical Code.
  • There are no wall cabinets in this run of cabinets. There will be an oversized (36") externally vented hood above the range.
  • The countertop will be custom and can accommodate alterations to the layout.
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  • Is this island on a slab, or a joist-supported floor system? Also, what NEC edition is your area on, and is having conduits or surface raceway running up the visible endwalls of the cabinetry an option? Commented Mar 17, 2021 at 23:18
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    What ii you pull the 12" deep cabinets out a bit, say 1/2" to 1". Then run your electric between the two sets of cabinets. I assume the counter top is going to be custom fit anyway, so 37" vs 36" (plus the overhang) for the depth should not be a problem.
    – SteveSh
    Commented Mar 17, 2021 at 23:23
  • Are there going to be upper cabinets over this peninsula, or will it be open to the ceiling? Is visible conduit or raceway on the exposed endwalls of the cabinetry an option? Commented Mar 17, 2021 at 23:24
  • I don’t see a toe kick under your cabinets that’s where the “foundation” is that 3 phase is talking about. A boxed chase or gutter is another option or flex attached to the back of a cabinet it all depends on how the cabinetry is built and if drawers, cabinets have usable space.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Mar 17, 2021 at 23:28
  • @SteveSh I'd had that thought. It would certainly make the range easy. Not as sure about outlets, I haven't done an island with outlets before; and of course I'd love to save that inch if it's all the same.
    – Air
    Commented Mar 17, 2021 at 23:33

1 Answer 1

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Your options: come up from below or down from above

You have two choices as to supplying the receptacles for this peninsula: either you can come up from below into a wiring chase between the two sets of cabinets as SteveSh describes, or come down from above using pendant techniques. Both work by Code, but have different caveats and costs. Note, by the way, that while you can get away with one receptacle near the end of the peninsula space and one receptacle on the originating wall, you'll want a 3rd receptacle to efficiently serve the "corner" area of the peninsula as well.

Chasing up a cabinet

The wiring chase option appears fairly simple in that all you seemingly need to provide is a 1" gap between the backs of the two cabinets to run the wiring through; however, you'll need some way to mount the receptacles themselves, and that's where the tradeoffs lie. Either you can use recessed "pop up" countertop boxes (such as the Arlington FL4400, Lew PUFP, or Hubbell RCT200), or you can continue conduits up through the countertop into threaded hubs or fittings on ordinary receptacle boxes above the countertop.

The former is the more elegant approach, and can be done with cable or conduit wiring methods, but costs you a bit of cabinet space due to box intrusion. Likewise, flushmounting boxes into the cabinet endwalls (peninsula sidewalls) so that their wiring continues down into the chase is an option as well, but relies on a somewhat fiddly exception in the 2017 NEC (aka 2019 CEC) as the receptacles wind up below the counter, and doesn't alleviate the space-intrusion concerns.

The other alternative is to run pairs of rigid metal conduits up from the floor to each receptacle location, then use that conduit pair itself as support for a FSS or FDS type receptacle box. This prevents intrusion into the cabinet storage spaces at the cost of having exposed, weatherproof-type (FD) boxes and conduit poking up from your countertop. Also, while this configuration is allowed by NEC 314.23(F), it does put more strain on where the conduits terminate in the crawlspace, so there's that to think about.

A variation on the previous theme involves using what's known as a FSY box (depicted below), which has a single conduit hub surrounded by a floor flange that can be bolted to the countertop. This saves you some money on conduits (you can use PVC or ENT instead of rigid) and is also less vulnerable to mechanical injury than a FSS box on two conduits would be, but is not as easy to find as they're only made by Eaton (Crouse-Hinds).

Crouse-Hinds FSY311

No matter what you do, you'll need some junction boxes below the chase to make wiring connections to the cable or conduit "tails" coming out of the cabinet. If I were you, I'd run 1/2" conduit of whatever flavor works for you between these boxes, instead of connecting them with a cable wiring method, in order to provide room for future expansion.

Dangling outlets

While it may seem that mounting outlets above your counters is a non-starter since you don't have upper cabinets to mount them to, there's a relatively easy way around this problem, called a pendant. This is a setup where a special outlet box with an integrated cable-clamp designed for the job (Hubbell HBL3000 series, Leviton 3059/3099, or equivalent) is dangled from the ceiling on the end of a bus drop cable (which is a type of very heavy-duty cord).

Of course, you'll need a box in the ceiling that either supplies an appropriate strain-relief (wire mesh cord grip) if you're hardwiring the pendant, or a locking receptacle if you plan to use premade, cord-and-plug connected pendant kits. You'll also need to make sure the receptacles are within 20" of the countertop surface in order for them to count as countertop receptacles.

As to that range...

Finally, we address the range receptacle. Unlike the countertop receptacles, the only sane way to handle this is by coming up from below; fortunately, we can simply come directly up into a box in the range receptacle space though, instead of having to worry about wiring chases or anything like that.

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    Ahh, pop-ups. That's something I hadn't considered. I bet I could even tuck the box into the back-left corner of the lazy susan, assuming that meets code. The pendants, now that's a severely wife-non-approved solution... But maybe a fun idea for a hardcore industrial look!
    – Air
    Commented Mar 18, 2021 at 1:50
  • Another option to consider is mounting the outlets right below the countertop, on the sides of the cabinets. That might make sense for the end of the L, where presumably there's just going to be bare cabinet sides otherwise. Or, if you increase the 1" gap to a 2" gap, you could actually mount receptacles right in the gap itself.
    – Nate S.
    Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 23:28
  • @NateS. -- I mentioned mounting the outlets below the countertop rather obliquely in my post, I'll edit that to make it more clear Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 23:33
  • @ThreePhaseEel, thanks for the edit; I see what you mean now. You'd covered all the options as usual; I just wasn't reading carefully enough haha
    – Nate S.
    Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 23:49
  • For the record, I ended up coming up from the crawlspace below for both circuits, using a pop-up receptacle for the 20 A circuit. There wasn't enough space for a flush mounted box AND power cord behind the range so I cut into the carcass of the base cabinet behind and sank the box partly into the void space behind the toe kick area, fastened into the subfloor, through spacers to bring the bottom of the box somewhat above the finish floor in case of water. I used MC and a J-box to come up through the lazy susan cabinet but it's hell for stout and only visible if you stick your entire head in.
    – Air
    Commented Jan 27, 2023 at 1:26

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