TL;DR
A dedicated circuit is a branch circuit that serves a single appliance or piece of equipment, with its own breaker and no other outlets or lights sharing the wire. The NEC requires this arrangement for many fixed appliances, ranges, dryers, water heaters, EV chargers, central air, and manufacturers of refrigerators, microwaves, and garbage disposals commonly demand it in their installation instructions as a warranty condition.
What it means
A dedicated circuit is a branch circuit that serves a single appliance or piece of equipment, with its own breaker and no other outlets or lights sharing the wire. The NEC requires this arrangement for many fixed appliances, ranges, dryers, water heaters, EV chargers, central air, and manufacturers of refrigerators, microwaves, and garbage disposals commonly demand it in their installation instructions as a warranty condition. Repeated breaker trips when two kitchen appliances run together are the everyday symptom that a circuit is being shared when it should not be.
Where it sits in the glossary
Dedicated circuit is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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