A device comprising _____ or more receptacles shall be calculated at not less than 90 VA per receptacle.

• A. Two
• B. Three
• C. Four
• D. Five

Answer: (C)

The key idea is that for devices with multiple receptacles, the NEC uses a conservative minimum load per receptacle to ensure circuits are sized adequately. When a single device contains four or more receptacles, it must be calculated at not less than 90 VA per receptacle. This threshold prevents underestimating the potential load of a multi-outlet device, since people can plug in several devices into one strip or receptacle device.

So four is the minimum number that triggers this rule, which is why the correct choice is four. If a device has two or three receptacles, this particular 90 VA-per-receptacle calculation doesn’t apply—the rule starts at four or more. If you had five receptacles, you’d also count 90 VA per receptacle, but the question asks for the threshold, which is four. For example, a four-outlet device would be treated as 4 × 90 VA = 360 VA for load calculations.