My brother-in-law, visiting from Ontario, told me that code there requires the wires to enter the outlet box from below or to have a drip loop so that water cannot run down the outside of the wiring into the box.
Is there any good reason not to do this even if local code (I'm in W. Michigan) does not require it?
MB
Where do you have a wall with water in it? I've never heard of a drip loop except on a weather head where the service is brought into your house or out building.
YMMV, Rich
i am in ontario. i have wired and gotten inspected several add-ons. i've never heard of this. you can enter a box anyway you like. if you want to enter via the bottom, go ahead. nothing wrong with that. ...thehick
As others have said, there's no good reason TO do it when the thing is inside of a wall and not exposed to weather. Oh sure, there's always the chance you'll get a roof leak and some water coming down through that wall cavity, but that's a pretty remote possibility and it's nonsensical to try and "prepare" for that.
OTOH, if the situation DOES get rained on routinely, it's safe and wise to do so. I mounted an outdoor round box for a security light, and the wiring was a piece of armored cable poking through a hole in the vinyl siding. I didn't just want it stabbing into the back of the box, so I arranged it so that it dipped down and then entered the box from a 45 degreee angle, upwards. I have a drip loop, there is no way water is running down that cable into my box.
If it is code here in Ontario, no one is following the code.
I've never heard of that in Alberta, either. Presumably that guideline is for a wet (outdoor?) installation. Not applicable for most home wiring.
Dave
Water could run along the wiring because of a plumbing leak.
Could it be a local code? He lives in Woodstock.
MB
On 09/06/04 11:21 am Rich put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:
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