GFCI and AFCI protection, room by room

Where there is water, guard against shock. Where people live and sleep, guard against fire. That is the short form of two long code sections, and it makes a fair first sort of the house before you open the book. This page goes room by room through what the National Electrical Code (NEC) asks for, and what the protection looks like when you go looking for it.

We do not explain here how the devices work. How a GFCI trips and how a circuit breaker trips, and what an AFCI adds do that. The one line to carry with you is the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s: AFCIs address fire hazards, and GFCIs address shock hazards.

Two rules written two different ways

The two requirements are not built alike, and that explains most of the confusion.

The GFCI rule is a list of places. In the 2020 code it covers receptacles from 125 through 250 volts installed in the listed locations. CPSC gives the reason in a phrase: ground fault protection is meant especially for particularly vulnerable areas, such as where electrical equipment is near water.

The AFCI rule is a list of rooms, and it protects whole circuits. In the 2020 code it covers the 120 volt, 15 and 20 ampere branch circuits that supply outlets or devices in the listed rooms. The City of St. Paul’s summary spells out what an outlet means there: receptacles, but also light fixtures, smoke detectors, dishwashers and disposals.

Room by room

What follows is our arrangement of the 2020 and 2023 lists, drawn from the summaries cited at the bottom of this page. Where a line names no edition, the 2020 summaries and the 2023 summaries we read agree on it. The code’s own wording controls, and so does the edition your state or city has adopted, with its local amendments; adoption changes, so check which one applies where you live.

• Kitchen. Both. GFCI: in the 2020 code, the receptacles that serve the countertops and any receptacle within 6 feet of the sink; in the 2023 code, every receptacle in the kitchen. AFCI: kitchens have been on the list since the 2014 code.
• Laundry area. Both. Laundry areas are on the GFCI list, and since the 2020 code that reaches 250 volt receptacles, so most 240 volt dryer receptacles are included. They joined the AFCI list in the 2014 code along with kitchens.
• Bathroom. GFCI for the receptacles. Bathrooms are not among the rooms named on the AFCI list for houses.
• Bedrooms. AFCI. This is where the requirement started: the 1999 code required it for bedroom circuits as of January 1, 2002. GFCI comes in as well where a receptacle sits within 6 feet of a sink, a bathtub or a shower stall, or where the bedroom is in a basement.
• Living room, family room, dining room, den, library, parlor, sunroom, recreation room. AFCI, since the 2008 code.
• Hallways and closets. AFCI, since the 2008 code. Because the rule covers the circuit and not just the receptacles, the hall light and the smoke alarm circuit count.
• Basement. GFCI. The 2020 code changed the wording from the unfinished portions of a basement to simply basements, finished or not, and the 2023 summaries keep basements on the list. Whether a basement also needs AFCI protection is a point the summaries we read do not settle alike: Leviton’s names finished basements, Eaton’s chart marks basements for both kinds of protection in 2020 and 2023, and the room lists for those editions name no basement at all. So we give no answer here; your building department can.
• Garage. GFCI, along with accessory buildings; the 2020 wording limits those to buildings whose floor is at or below grade and that are used for storage or as work areas. Garages are not named on the AFCI list, though Tuolumne County, California’s handout on the 2019 California Electrical Code (built on the 2017 NEC) counts a laundry area in a garage as a laundry area.
• Crawl space. GFCI, at or below grade level.
• Outdoors. GFCI for receptacles. The 2020 code went further and covered outdoor outlets that are not receptacles, with lighting excepted: the U.S. Virgin Islands’ code summary gives the example of a 240 volt air conditioner rated 50 amperes or less, whose connection outdoors now needs GFCI protection. The air conditioner is the least settled part of this rule: the summaries of the 2023 code that we read do not agree on whether, and until when, listed heating and cooling equipment is excepted, so we give no answer here. Do not read that as an exemption for your air conditioner. Ask your building department how it stands where you live.
• Anywhere near water. GFCI for any receptacle within 6 feet of the top inside edge of a sink bowl, or within 6 feet of the outside edge of a bathtub or shower stall, whatever the room is called. The 2020 code also added indoor damp and wet locations as a class.

What changed in 2020 and 2023

The lists above did not arrive all at once, and the 2020 and 2023 editions moved the GFCI line a good way.

The 2020 code:

• Reached past the familiar 125 volt receptacles to everything from 125 through 250 volts in the listed locations. A continuing education publisher’s comparison of the two editions notes the practical result: most 240 volt clothes dryer receptacles now need GFCI protection.
• Dropped the word unfinished from basements, on the reasoning that a damp floor is a hazard regardless of the flooring.
• Added indoor damp and wet locations.
• Added outdoor outlets other than receptacles, such as the air conditioner connection above.
• Pointed to a list of appliances that need GFCI protection wherever they are, including sump pumps and dishwashers (the dishwasher rule was already in the code and was moved onto this list).

The 2023 code, per Eaton’s guide:

• Expanded kitchens from the countertop receptacles to all receptacles in the kitchen.
• Added a new item for areas that have a sink and are permanently set up for preparing food or drinks or for cooking.
• Lengthened the appliance list to take in electric ranges, wall-mounted ovens, counter-mounted cooking units, clothes dryers and microwave ovens.

The AFCI room list has been steadier. The National Association of Home Builders’ summary: bedrooms in the 1999 code, the other living areas in 2008, kitchens and laundry areas in 2014, and no change to the list in the 2017 and 2020 editions. The 2023 list names the same rooms.

What the protection looks like

The same protection comes in several packages, and a room can be protected by a device that is not in the room.

• A GFCI receptacle takes the place of a standard duplex receptacle and has TEST and RESET buttons on its face. CPSC notes that it protects whatever is plugged into it and the outlets downstream of it on the same circuit, so an ordinary-looking receptacle may be protected by a GFCI somewhere else.
• A GFCI breaker sits in the panel. CPSC: it protects the wiring and every outlet, light fixture or appliance on the circuit it supplies.
• An AFCI breaker also sits in the panel. ESFI says the older branch/feeder type was phased out as of January 2008 and replaced by the combination type, which also detects lower-level series arcing in both branch circuits and power cords. Not entirely gone, though: IAEI’s review of the 2014 code and Tuolumne County’s handout on the 2019 California code both still accept a branch/feeder breaker when it is paired with an AFCI receptacle in the first outlet box of the circuit.
• An AFCI receptacle, called the outlet branch circuit type, goes at the first outlet on a new circuit, and the code attaches conditions to using one there in place of an AFCI breaker (IAEI’s review of the 2014 edition lists them), so the choice is an electrician’s. It can also take the place of an existing receptacle that is being replaced in a listed room: St. Paul’s summary and Tuolumne County’s handout, both working from the replacement rule of the 2017 code, accept one there. Tuolumne County’s handout says these resemble GFCI receptacles, except that they say AFCI on their face.
• A dual function breaker or receptacle is both at once. Siemens describes its version as combining Class A 5 milliampere GFCI and AFCI protection in one breaker, and notes that the code calls for both kinds on kitchen and laundry circuits. Leviton’s dual function receptacle has test and reset buttons on its face and a status light that shows which kind of fault tripped it.

Two of those names are easy to mix up. In ESFI’s usage, combination type describes an AFCI that detects series arcing as well as the parallel arcing the branch/feeder type caught, and Leviton spells out that the word does not mean AFCI and GFCI together: a combination type is still only an AFCI. The makers call a device that is an AFCI and a GFCI together dual function. CPSC’s one-page AFCI publication adds to the muddle: it calls a unit with both AFCI and GFCI protection a combination device.

For the rooms that need both, Schneider Electric’s guide for electricians says of its own Square D line what the other makers say of theirs: it includes dual function options for circuits that require both types of protection. The other way to get there is one device of each kind on the same circuit.

Older houses

The code looks forward. CPSC says the NEC typically applies only to new construction and major renovations. The rules catch up with an old house a piece at a time, and the City of St. Paul’s enforcement note, written for the 2020 code, shows how one city applies them:

• Existing outlets are not required to be AFCI protected.
• New, extended or modified circuits in the listed rooms are. Mike Holt’s summary of the 2023 code in EC&M gives the exception for a short extension: less than 6 feet, adding no outlets or devices other than splicing devices.
• A replacement receptacle in a listed room must be AFCI protected, under a section St. Paul cites from the 2017 code, and the same section carries GFCI and tamper-resistant requirements for replacements.

Adding protection where the code never required it is still worth considering. CPSC says older homes with ordinary breakers especially may benefit from the added protection of AFCIs against the arcing faults that can occur in aging wiring. And a GFCI receptacle can even replace an old two-slot ungrounded receptacle, CPSC notes, as long as it carries the supplied label reading NO EQUIPMENT GROUND GFCI PROTECTED, which identifies the receptacle as still not grounded. In a room on the AFCI list that is not the whole answer: under the 2017 code section St. Paul cites, the replacement must be AFCI protected as well, and St. Paul’s note names a combination AFCI/GFCI receptacle, the dual function kind, for an ungrounded two-prong one. Either job is an electrician’s, as the last section of this page sets out.

Your state may read differently

The NEC is a model. CPSC’s fact sheet explains that it may be adopted into law by states, counties or local jurisdictions, and that it is revised every three years. A 2026 edition is already out, cited in Schneider Electric’s guide, and this page stops at 2023. Adoption runs behind, and amendments are common.

The home builders’ association counted the result for AFCIs as of December 2020: 32 states with the list as extended to kitchens and laundry areas (two of them, Montana and Wisconsin, marked as excluding kitchens), 6 stopping at the 2008 list, 3 requiring AFCIs in bedrooms only, and 9 with no statewide adoption of the AFCI provisions. That is a snapshot of December 2020; states adopt newer editions and change their amendments, so the count today may differ. The U.S. Virgin Islands’ own summary of the 2020 code carries exactly that kind of note: there, it says, AFCIs are currently required in bedrooms only. The note is undated, and it too may have changed.

So treat the list above as the model, and ask your local building department which edition it enforces and with what changes.

What is yours, and what is an electrician’s

Start with where to stop. A licensed electrician’s: adding or changing GFCI or AFCI protection anywhere in the house, and anything behind the panel cover. CPSC is direct about AFCIs: have a qualified electrician install them and do not attempt the work yourself, because the installation involves working within panel boxes that are usually electrically live even with the main breaker turned off. ESFI says only a licensed, qualified electrician should install a GFCI. CPSC’s 2010 GFCI fact sheet is looser about receptacles, allowing consumers with adequate knowledge and skills to install them, but it adds that when in doubt you should contact a qualified electrician and not attempt it yourself. We follow ESFI. A GFCI that does not cut the power when you test it is an electrician’s call as well: CPSC says to have a qualified electrician correct the wiring or replace the device. So is one that will not reset, which CPSC says to replace. The work may also need a permit. Jefferson County, Colorado’s residential wiring guide, written for the 2023 code as the state and county adopted it, requires an electrical permit for any new electrical work in a house, adding to existing circuits included. That is one county, so ask your own building department before anyone starts.

Yours: finding out what you have. Walk the rooms looking for TEST and RESET buttons, read the labels on the breakers with the panel door open and the cover behind it left in place, and test every GFCI and AFCI monthly as ESFI recommends. The two explainers linked at the top give the test for each.

Related

• Almanac: May, National Electrical Safety Month
• How a GFCI trips, how a circuit breaker trips, and what an AFCI adds, and how power gets into and around the house
• Glossary: GFCI, AFCI, dual function breaker, branch circuit, tamper-resistant receptacle