Designing A Kitchen? 4 Types Of Outlets You Need
When you are designing a kitchen, you need to make sure that you pay attention to the little details of the design process. It can be fun to pick out your countertop, appliances, and flooring for your kitchen. However you don't want to forget about the little details either. When you are designing a kitchen, you need to think carefully about all the outlets you want in your kitchen. Having the right number of outlets can make your kitchen that much easier and enjoyable to use.
Countertop Outlets
The most obvious and often the most useful outlets are the ones that are on the countertop. These are the outlets that go into the backsplash of your countertops, which are the ones that you can easily access when you have something sitting on the countertop. Countertop outlets can also be the outlets that are on the side of your countertop as well, such as an outlet that is on the side of a kitchen island.
When deciding how many countertop outlets you want to have, think about all the things that you may need to plug in. Do you want to plug in a radio or speakers? Do you use a coffee makers on a regular basis? What about a blender or an electric griddle?
Once you have an idea of all the small items that you use in your kitchen that you need to plug in, look around your kitchen and determine where those small appliances would go, and where you would want to have outlets for those items. Then, once you select the location for all your countertop outlets, consider adding an extra outlet or two.
Wet Area Outlets
Next, for any area that is near a water source, such as your dishwasher or your sink, you need to install GFCI outlets. There are also known as wet outlets. These are known as wet outlets because if they get wet, the outlet is specifically designed to ensure that you do not get shocked and that the circuit doesn't fault out due to the water. Think about if you want any outlets near your sink.
For example, if you want a garbage disposal, then you would need a GFCI outlet under your sink.
Kitchen Appliance Circuits
Next, you need outlets for all your kitchen appliances. Kitchen appliances often need special outlets. For example, for each stove or oven that you want to run on electricity, you will need an outlet that is on its own circuit, with nothing else on that circuit. You will also need that circuit to be capable of carrying a higher electrical load than the other circuits in your kitchen.
Figure out where you want all your major appliances to go, and then have special outlets installed at all of those locations.
Lights
Your lights may not be an outlet, but they are an electrical fixture in your kitchen. When choosing lights, layer the lights. You are going to want to add high lights overhead, and task lighting. Place the light switches in areas that are easy to get to. You want the location of your light switches and your outlets to be in harmony with one another. For example, maybe you want a light switch at the end of your counter for the task lights, but you also want an outlet there. You can put the light switch on the outer edge, and the outlet over a few inches, or you can put the outlet on the side of the counter instead, so they are not right next to each other.
When planning your kitchen remodeling, think about how you will use your kitchen. You should think just as carefully about where you want the outlets in your kitchen as you do about what appliances you want in your kitchen.