Seal electrical boxes with aluminum tape?

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Hey RBM, when you see a situation where one extension won't satisfy space requirements, do you do what I do? Mount another box or get a

6x6x4 or 8x8x4 and put everything in there? o_O

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas
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Exactly, if you have that many cables to splice, you use a larger box, a small trough, or multiple boxes. Id really like to see this multi-ganged

1900 extension set up with cables coming out in all directions like an octopus.
Reply to
RBM

...snipped...

...snipped again...

I've never used a trough. If you use something like a 4x4x12 trough, does the "3 inches of wire outside the box" rule still apply?

Reply to
DerbyDad03

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Some years back, I rewired a building that was being used as a beauty shop, a very large beauty shop. When a storm blew down a tree which landed on the drop from the transformer, it broke the hub on the meter box and sliced the wires like a pair of scissors. It was a 200 amp 3ø service so after discussing it with the customer, I went back in with a 400 amp 3ø service and ran the shop off a 65kw diesel generator while rebuilding the electrical system. I ran all the new circuits overhead and what I did was come out of the breaker panel with a single 2&1/2" EMT and elbow to a large screw cover non-gasket junction box in the drop ceiling and ran my multiple 1/2" EMT 20 amp circuits for hair dryers and work stations out of that. Not running separate 1/2 conduits to the panel made changes and additions very easy not to mention the whole job was easier. My inspector thought it a bit unusual but had no problem with it and it did make for a much neater installation for the inside breaker panel. There was a large trough fed with 4" rigid for the other breaker panels on a wall in the garage area. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

The Nec requires that all the conductors except ones that are passing through unbroken, be at least 6" long from the point that they enter the box. If the box opening is less than 8" in any dimension, there needs to be minimum of 3" sticking beyond the box

Reply to
RBM

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That makes for a neat installation. I once did a Chinese restaurant like that. The only issue doing it that way is the requirement to de-rate the value of the conductors in the 2 1/2" conduit

Reply to
RBM

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De-rating was the only issue that came up with the 2&1/2" conduit but with less than 50% fill it was no problem. That was the reason I went with the large size. All the conductors would have fit in a 1&1/2" pipe easily but I went with the bigger pipe to avoid any capacity or wire pulling hangups. The big junction box in the ceiling made wire pulling very easy since I was doing most of the work myself. When I teach guys and gals how to pull wire, I explain that I'm lazy and I want things to be as easy as possible so I will setup a pull so it can be done by one person if need be. Most of what I do these days is low voltage telecom and network wiring and network wiring, especially fiber optic cable is something to be treated gently. I often spend more time planning a cable pull than the time it takes to pull the cable in. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

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But for that distance, the extra cost to go one size larger on your wire is a very small increment. Particularly in the grand scheme of things.

Reply to
clare

Here is the follow-up:

The inspector came out and the work was approved. He checked all of the things that I would have expected him to check such as: 2 grounding rods approximately 6 feet apart; grounding to a cold water pipe; a jumper across the water meter; a jumper across the hot and cold water for each of the two hot water heaters; continuous grounding wire between all of the panels and going outside to the two grounding rods; circuit breakers labeled and the main service disconnect in each panel labeled as such; he asked of the panel in the basement was the new "house" panel (which it is) since the tenants don't have access to the basement (the individual apt. panels are inside each apt. with tenant having access to their own service disconnect and breakers); etc. He looked at the junction boxes that I wrote about and didn't say anything.

Reply to
TomR

Good to hear. Thanks for the follow up

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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