NEC 210.11 Required Branch Circuits: the dwelling-unit minimums, explained

Verbatim code text, the four mandatory circuit types (small-appliance, laundry, bathroom, garage), the two exclusivity gotchas, how these circuits feed the 220.52 and 220.82 load calcs, worked examples, and a free in-browser 210.11 checklist. Last updated 2026-08-30 (written for PanelWright v1.15).

Runs in your browser. No account, no install, data never leaves your machine. The 210.11 card sits on the main page under the NEC load cards.

The rule in one sentence

In a dwelling unit, the total calculated load (Article 220) sets how many amps the wiring must carry — but 210.11(C) is a count rule: regardless of load, the unit must also have two or more 20 A small-appliance circuits, at least one 20 A laundry circuit, one or more 120 V 20 A bathroom circuits, and (if there is a garage with electric power) at least one 120 V 20 A garage circuit. Each of those required circuits also puts 1,500 VA on the feeder (220.52) — so the minimum-circuit rule and the load calculation are tied together.

The code text (verbatim)

210.11 Branch Circuits Required

(A) Number of Branch Circuits

(B) Load Evenly Proportioned Among Branch Circuits

(C) Dwelling Units

Three structural things to notice. First, (C)(1)–(C)(4) are additive: “in addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section” — they sit on top of the load-based count from (A), not in place of it. Second, (C) has no outdoor item and no (C)(5): outdoor receptacles are covered only insofar as the garage circuit’s exception permits them. Third, the cross-references do the real work — each circuit type exists to serve the receptacle outlets that 210.52(B)/(D)/(F)/(G)(1) require. Get the outlets right and the circuits follow.

The four mandatory circuit types

Only the small-appliance and laundry circuits carry a 220.52 load line — 1,500 VA per circuit — because 220.52(A)/(B) names exactly those two circuit types. Bathroom and garage circuits are still on the panel and still count against the space you have, but they add no separate 220.52 VA; their receptacle load rides with the general lighting and receptacle calculation of 220.14.

The two gotchas (and one that isn’t a rule)

Gotcha 1 — the bathroom circuit is the most exclusive

210.11(C)(3) is stricter than it looks. The circuit serves the 210.52(D) bathroom receptacle(s) and countertop/work-surface receptacle outlets, and “shall have no other outlets.” The only escape valve is the exception: if that one 20 A circuit supplies a single bathroom, outlets for other equipment within the same bathroom (a fan, a light, a towel-warmer outlet) are permitted per 210.23(A)(1) and (A)(2). The moment a second bathroom is on the same circuit, the exception is gone — no other-bathroom equipment outlets, no lighting, no hallway receptacle. This is the requirement the PanelWright checklist flags first.

Gotcha 2 — the garage circuit is the only one with an “outdoor” allowance

210.11(C)(4)’s exception is the sole place in 210.11(C) that lets a required circuit leave its zone: the garage circuit may supply readily accessible outdoor receptacle outlets. So a dedicated outdoor circuit is common good practice (and GFCI-protected per 210.8), but it is not a 210.11 requirement — there is no (C)(5) for outdoor receptacles, and the code does not mandate a separate outdoor circuit at all.

The “two lighting circuits” myth

210.11 has no lighting-circuit minimum. People often say “210.11 requires two lighting circuits” — it does not. What (B) actually requires is that a load calculated on a VA-per-square-foot basis be evenly proportioned among the multioutlet branch circuits in the panelboard — a distribution rule, not a count rule. “Two or more lighting circuits” is design practice (even distribution, serviceability), and PanelWright’s checklist lists it as a design-practice row, explicitly labeled as not a code cite.

How 210.11 feeds the load calc (220.52 and 220.82)

• 220.52(A) small-appliance circuit load: “the load shall be calculated at 1500 volt-amperes for each 2-wire small-appliance branch circuit as covered by 210.11(C)(1).” Every required (and any additional) 2-wire small-appliance circuit is 1,500 VA on the feeder. Two minimum circuits = 3,000 VA; a permitted third = 4,500 VA (core-verified below).
• 220.52(B) laundry circuit load: “a load of not less than 1500 volt-amperes shall be included for each 2-wire laundry branch circuit installed as covered by 210.11(C)(2).” One minimum = 1,500 VA; a second laundry circuit = 3,000 VA.
• 220.82(B)(2) optional method: the same 1,500 VA applies per circuit in the single-dwelling optional method — “1500 volt-amperes for each 2-wire, 20-ampere small-appliance branch circuit and each laundry branch circuit covered in 210.11(C)(1) and (C)(2).” So a home with the two minimum small-appliance circuits plus one laundry circuit starts at 4,500 VA of (B)(2) load before a square foot of lighting is counted. (The 220.82 card on the main page has the small-appliance and laundry circuit-count inputs wired to exactly this.)
• 220.42 demand still applies: 220.52(A)/(B) both say these loads “shall be permitted to be included with the general lighting load and subjected to the demand factors provided in Table 220.42” — so the 1,500 VA lines ride into the standard-method demand, they are not added on top at 100% (covered in the 220.42 lighting-demand explainer).

Worked examples (all locked by the test suite)

Every number below is produced by the shipped PanelWright core — serviceLoad22082() for the 220.82 VA lines, dwStatus() for the minimum-circuit check — and is an assertion in the public test suite (test/run_tests.js in the public repo).

The baseline row is the standard-method bridge: 1,600 ft² × 3 VA = 4,800 VA general lighting, + 3,000 VA (two small-appliance) + 1,500 VA (one laundry) = 9,300 VA — below the 10 kVA tier, so the 220.82(B) demand stays 9,300 VA; add the largest (C) option, 12 kVA AC at 100%, and the service calc lands at 21,300 VA = 88.75 A → a 90 A service. The checklist rows are the same check the 210.11 card on the main page runs against your panel schedule: keyword auto-match is a suggestion — the card never decides compliance for you, it just makes the four mandatory rows visible.

Where 210.11 fits (and doesn’t)

• Dwelling units only: (C)(1)–(C)(4) are titled “Dwelling Units.” Non-dwelling occupancies get the load-based minimum from 210.11(A) and the even-proportioning rule from (B) — plus whatever specific-circuit rules apply elsewhere in the NEC.
• Circuits vs. loads: 210.11 is the “how many dedicated circuits” side; Article 220 is the “how many amps” side. The 1,500 VA lines are where they meet (220.52).
• Conductor and OCPD sizing is elsewhere: 210.11 tells you the circuits must exist; 210.19/210.20 size their conductors and protection (125% of continuous load), and 210.21/210.23 set receptacle ratings and permissible loads on multioutlet circuits. The bathroom exception explicitly points at 210.23(A)(1)/(A)(2).
• Receptacles are 210.52: each of the four circuit types exists to serve a 210.52 outlet set — (B) small-appliance rooms, (D) bathrooms, (F) laundry, (G)(1) garages. Counting required circuits without counting the required receptacles is how these get missed.

Editions: 2014 / 2017 / 2020 / 2023 / 2026

• 2014: the four (C)(1)–(C)(4) minimums in the form above — the NFPA 70 2014 extract on disk cites 210.11(C)(1)/(C)(2)/(C)(3) from the 2014 text (e.g., the 220.44 cross-reference list) and its 220.18 text is consistent with the 2020 structure. This article quotes the 2020 full-code text as the verbatim anchor because it is the cleanest edition on hand.
• 2017 / 2020: 210.11 is unchanged in structure — the same four (C) items with the same exceptions. The 2020 scan’s text was read verbatim this session (OCR artifacts normalized and listed in the code block above).
• 2023: no change. The 2023 NEC change analysis on disk makes no 210.11 entry, and the Mike Holt 2023-NEC “Branch Circuits” summary (fetched this session) restates (C)(1)–(C)(4) exactly as above — including the single-bathroom exception and the garage outdoor-receptacle exception.
• 2026: the NEC renumbers load calculations out of Article 220 into the Article 120 area (flagged in the tool’s UI, as with the 220.42/220.54/220.56 articles); 210.11-specific 2026 changes are not independently verified here — verify against the adopted edition.

Free NEC 210.11 checklist

Open the PanelWright 210.11 card →

Build your panel schedule, and the card auto-suggests which named circuits satisfy each 210.11(C)(1)–(C)(4) requirement; confirm or override each row (auto → ✓ verified → ✗ missing). The checklist prints in the rollup CSV export and the branded PDF project report. The same page also covers 220.82 (optional dwelling service load), 220.55 cooking, 220.53 fixed appliances, 220.56 commercial kitchen, 220.42 lighting, 220.61 neutral, Table 310.16 conductor picks, voltage drop (Ch. 9), phase balancing, and breaker sizing.

Sources & verification