Title 24 Controlled Receptacle Requirements
Offices, lobbies, conference rooms, kitchens and copy rooms need both controlled and uncontrolled 120-volt receptacles. Controlled ones switch off when the space is vacant, must sit within 6 feet of an uncontrolled one, and must be permanently marked.
Why plug loads got regulated
Lighting and mechanical loads have been controlled for cycles. Plug loads were the remaining gap: monitors, task lights, chargers, space heaters and printers drawing power through nights and weekends in an empty building.
The code's answer is not to switch everything off — that would break refrigerators and network equipment. It is to require that some outlets switch off, and that occupants can tell which.
Where it applies
Offices, lobbies, conference rooms, kitchens and copy rooms. The list is specific rather than general, and it targets the spaces where equipment is plugged in and then left.
The 6-foot rule is the design constraint
At least one controlled receptacle must be within 6 feet of an uncontrolled one, or the outlets must be paired.
This is the requirement that shapes the drawing. It exists so a user always has a genuine choice at every location — if controlled outlets were grouped on one wall and uncontrolled on another, people would simply use the ones that stay on, and the measure would achieve nothing. Pairing makes the compliant choice the convenient one.
Permanent marking
Controlled receptacles must be permanently marked to differentiate them. Without marking the whole arrangement is a trap: someone plugs a laptop into whichever socket is nearest and loses work when the space goes vacant.
Permanent is the operative word. A label that peels off has stopped complying, which is why marked faceplates rather than adhesive labels are the practical answer.
The two-hour override, and the holiday catch
Manual override is permitted, capped at a maximum of two hours, with automatic holiday shutoff.
Both halves matter. Two hours means someone working late can keep power without disabling the control indefinitely — the override expires rather than persisting. And holiday shutoff closes the obvious hole: an override left active before a long weekend would otherwise run the loads through exactly the period the requirement exists to catch.
Hotel and motel guest rooms are different
Guest rooms have their own rule: controlled receptacles for at least one-half of the 120-volt receptacles in each guestroom, switching off after 20 minutes of vacancy.
Twenty minutes is far more aggressive than an office, and reasonably so — a guest room is empty most of the day, on a predictable pattern, and the occupant has no interest in the building's energy use.
What stays powered
The exceptions are the loads that must not be interrupted: refrigerators, clocks, network equipment, circuits of 20 amps and above, and UPS systems. Healthcare facilities are excepted as well.
The 20-amp exception is the one that catches people, because it is defined by circuit rating rather than by what is plugged in. It is worth checking against the panel schedule rather than assuming from the equipment.