A 240V clothes dryer located in a finished basement laundry room requires which of the following?

A 240V clothes dryer located in a finished basement laundry room requires which of the following?

• A. Ground-fault circuit protection
• B. Arc-fault circuit protection
• C. Both ground-fault and arc-fault protections
• D. Neither protection

Answer: (A)

Ground-fault protection is required for receptacles in laundry areas, including 240V dryer outlets. Laundry spaces in basements can be damp, so a GFCI detects even small leakage from a hot or neutral conductor to ground and trips immediately, reducing the risk of shock if someone touches a live part while standing on a damp surface. A 240V clothes dryer typically uses a dedicated circuit and a receptacle that falls under the laundry-area receptacle rule, so it must be GFCI-protected. Arc-fault protection is not mandated for this specific dryer circuit in many code cycles, so while AFCI helps prevent fires from arcing, it isn’t the requirement here. Therefore the required protection is ground-fault protection.

Ground-fault protection is required for receptacles in laundry areas, including 240V dryer outlets. Laundry spaces in basements can be damp, so a GFCI detects even small leakage from a hot or neutral conductor to ground and trips immediately, reducing the risk of shock if someone touches a live part while standing on a damp surface. A 240V clothes dryer typically uses a dedicated circuit and a receptacle that falls under the laundry-area receptacle rule, so it must be GFCI-protected. Arc-fault protection is not mandated for this specific dryer circuit in many code cycles, so while AFCI helps prevent fires from arcing, it isn’t the requirement here. Therefore the required protection is ground-fault protection.