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I have a 17 foot wall in the kitchen. At each end of the wall is a door. So this effectively makes the actual wall 12 feet long. I am updating my electrical and need to know if I need one or two receptacles on this wall. Since the effective wall length is 12 feet, I thought it would be one receptacle (6 feet from receptacle to each doorway).

The wall is not a counter top wall. Outlets for small appliance circuits have already been installed. The doors in each corner go directly to the corner of the room and there is no space between the door frame and the corner to install an outlet.

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    The minimum the code requires and what are actually necessary may be two different things. Also, is this counter top space, empty wall space, a wall where appliances will go? It's unusual for there to be 17' of wall in a kitchen with nothing on the wall (maybe it's a breakfast nook?)
    – FreeMan
    May 18, 2021 at 12:55
  • It being in a kitchen, 4-6 is about right, but not code-required unless it's "countertop not stove or sink," where I think it might actually be required under the special kitchen section...
    – Ecnerwal
    May 18, 2021 at 12:58
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    It's very inexpensive to add outlets so think about convenience rather than code which is an absolute minimum: 12 feet between outlets is the max, so you're right that 1 outlet in the middle of that wall would meet code. But would that suffice for your needs? The rule for outlets on countertops is different, excluding sinks and ranges, the max separation is 4' meaning any small appliance must be within 2' of an outlet.
    – George Anderson
    May 18, 2021 at 13:14
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    More people spend more time in the kitchen than anywhere else. Aside from the obvious small appliances they also have laptops, phones to charge, portable speakers, sewing machines, glue guns and other project tools, they use the kitchen table for work, for art, for repairing things, for Zoom meetings. If I were gutting my kitchen I'd put a quad outlet every 4 feet at least, with at least two of them on every wall, I'd have them on every side of the table, each end (at least) of every counter, every corner and both sides of every door and window. Why skimp?
    – jay613
    May 18, 2021 at 13:48
  • @jay613 Your comment is more complete than mine, thanks for chiming in. +
    – George Anderson
    May 18, 2021 at 16:36

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I would install at minimum 3 duplex outlets for a kitchen counter of that length. One foot from each corner and one in the middle.

Depending on how it looks then I might do 4 duplexes. One foot from each corner and one 4-5 feet from each corner.

You will NEVER EVER say to yourself: "Gosh, I wish I had fewer outlets!"

The only code thing you need to look into is whether they all need to be GFCI protected and whether each duplex needs a dedicated circuit.

Update per your edit:

It's just a regular house wall so treat it as such.

I think the only applicable rules are "within 6 feet of the doorway and within 12 feet of the previous outlet". You can have an outlet every foot if you wanted to.

I would go for 1-2 feet from each door and maybe one in the center of the wall.

You might still need to verify the GFCI ruling and/or dedicated circuit ruling since it is in a kitchen.

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  • Having just worked with my son to wire his new house, we learned that "dining areas" IE: dining rooms, kitchen nooks, etc. need to be on a different circuit than other living space and not on the same circuit as those serving kitchen countertops. So if the location of the outlet(s) could be considered a dining area, it will need to be on it's own circuit...at least that's the way in my neck of the woods.
    – George Anderson
    May 18, 2021 at 16:41
  • Yes, yes and yes again: You will NEVER EVER say to yourself: "Gosh, I wish I had fewer outlets!" At this stage, adding any number of outlets is trivial. Coming back to add more later could be a major problem…
    – Robbie Goodwin
    May 19, 2021 at 23:13

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