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Crawl-space wiring nhurst 09-15-2006
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Posted by nhurst on September 15, 2006, 10:42 am
I've got an older house with old 2 conductor wiring in place that I'm
working on upgrading. The rooms next on the rewiring list have a
combination of overhead and underfloor supplied outlets and I'd like
them on the same breakers if possible, so I have some questions to put
to the group to add in to my consideration:

1) Should I run my under-house wiring in conduit or is just the plain
Romex good enough? I'm currently leaning toward running it through
conduit, to ease future replacement/repair if it's ever needed. I'm
thinking about the thinwall 3/4" galvanized pipe that I can bend with a
regular pipe bender. I'm anticipating only 1 12/2 wire per pipe.

2) Since my rooms have a mix of under floor and overhead supplied
outlets, can I wire both sets up to the same AFCI breaker in my central
breaker box? Some of the other breakers I've installed have the screw
down plate with 2 bumps on it (like this: n_n (where the "n" represents
the bump and the screw penetrates through the "_")). I've done searches
on the archives here, but I saw many mixed responses, so I wasn't sure
what the current rules allowed, and I haven't installed an AFCI
breaker, so I'm hoping someone who has can answer that question (BTW my
breaker box is Square D).

Thanks for any responses!

-Nathan


Posted by Todd H. on September 15, 2006, 11:00 am

> I've got an older house with old 2 conductor wiring in place that I'm
> working on upgrading. The rooms next on the rewiring list have a
> combination of overhead and underfloor supplied outlets and I'd like
> them on the same breakers if possible, so I have some questions to put
> to the group to add in to my consideration:
>
> 1) Should I run my under-house wiring in conduit or is just the plain
> Romex good enough?

Depends on your local codes, but yeah, conduit is superior. In
Illinois here, for example everything's gotta go in conduit.

It would be handy to talk to a licensed electrician in your state
though for an authoritative response.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Posted by Mark Lloyd on September 15, 2006, 12:22 pm

>I've got an older house with old 2 conductor wiring in place that I'm
>working on upgrading. The rooms next on the rewiring list have a
>combination of overhead and underfloor supplied outlets and I'd like
>them on the same breakers if possible, so I have some questions to put
>to the group to add in to my consideration:
>
>1) Should I run my under-house wiring in conduit or is just the plain
>Romex good enough? I'm currently leaning toward running it through
>conduit, to ease future replacement/repair if it's ever needed. I'm
>thinking about the thinwall 3/4" galvanized pipe that I can bend with a
>regular pipe bender. I'm anticipating only 1 12/2 wire per pipe.
>
>2) Since my rooms have a mix of under floor and overhead supplied
>outlets, can I wire both sets up to the same AFCI breaker in my central
>breaker box? Some of the other breakers I've installed have the screw
>down plate with 2 bumps on it (like this: n_n (where the "n" represents
>the bump and the screw penetrates through the "_")). I've done searches
>on the archives here, but I saw many mixed responses, so I wasn't sure
>what the current rules allowed, and I haven't installed an AFCI
>breaker, so I'm hoping someone who has can answer that question (BTW my
>breaker box is Square D).
>
>Thanks for any responses!
>
>-Nathan

My panel is a square D, and the extra breaker is marked. You're
allowed 2 wires if they're both copper and no larger than 10 gauge. I
also have an AFCI breaker for that panel. It allows single wires only
(the other side of the clamp is covered up).

--
101 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"How could you ask be to believe in God when there's
absolutely no evidence that I can see?" -- Jodie Foster

Posted by RayV on September 15, 2006, 8:57 pm

nhurst wrote:
> I've got an older house with old 2 conductor wiring in place that I'm
> working on upgrading. The rooms next on the rewiring list have a
> combination of overhead and underfloor supplied outlets and I'd like
> them on the same breakers if possible, so I have some questions to put
> to the group to add in to my consideration:
>
> 1) Should I run my under-house wiring in conduit or is just the plain
> Romex good enough? I'm currently leaning toward running it through
> conduit, to ease future replacement/repair if it's ever needed. I'm
> thinking about the thinwall 3/4" galvanized pipe that I can bend with a
> regular pipe bender. I'm anticipating only 1 12/2 wire per pipe.
>
> 2) Since my rooms have a mix of under floor and overhead supplied
> outlets, can I wire both sets up to the same AFCI breaker in my central
> breaker box? Some of the other breakers I've installed have the screw
> down plate with 2 bumps on it (like this: n_n (where the "n" represents
> the bump and the screw penetrates through the "_")). I've done searches
> on the archives here, but I saw many mixed responses, so I wasn't sure
> what the current rules allowed, and I haven't installed an AFCI
> breaker, so I'm hoping someone who has can answer that question (BTW my
> breaker box is Square D).
>
> Thanks for any responses!
>
> -Nathan

I don't have a copy of the NEC but I think you can only put individual
wires through conduit not romex.


Posted by nhurst on September 16, 2006, 11:07 am

RayV wrote:
>
> I don't have a copy of the NEC but I think you can only put individual
> wires through conduit not romex.

Yeah, I did a lot of reading last night on the NG and other sources,
and I decided that I would just use conduit on the outside of the house
from the breaker box to the crawlspace, then tack the wires to the
floor joists. This way it's not part of a conduit system, but providing
protection to the wire, which is OK with the NEC from what I've read.
I'm planning on only putting a max of 2 12/2 Romex wires through 3/4"
thin-wall EMT, with a run of maybe 5 feet from the box to where the
wire will penetrate into the crawlspace.

The reason I'm wanting to combine overhead and subfloor circuits is
that I'm wanting to keep some confusion out of the mix. I'm planning on
having the outlets in all the rooms on AFCI and the lighting for the
rooms on another, normal circuit breaker. That way if the AFCI trips we
can still have light in the rooms, and vice versa. The Square D AFCI
breakers I got don't allow for 2 conductors to be directly screwed down
onto them, so I'm just going to combine the wires and run a pigtail to
the breaker, which my research here has led me to believe is OK.

Thanks for all the responses. This NG has been a great tool in helping
me get what I need to do figured out. :-)

-Nathan


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