As Kevin said runs to a regular switch (or 3 way switch) can be made with 2 (or 3) wire Romex. The white wire can be used as the hot wire feed to the switch (but not the switched wire). As Kevin said the wire color must be permanently changed everywhere it is accessible. (2005NEC
200.7C2).bud--
I'm pretty sure an AHJ would allow it either, but the wording is vague (I don't have the actual text with me at the moment).
There are a few other issues, too, but all agree it's not good practice....
A true California 3 way would put the bulb between two neutrals or hots, too.
I agree with you on everything else you said, and you may have noted I was in the ranks of those who told the OP to straighten out and do it right.
The worst example of this sort of thing I've personally experienced was when some clod who was too lazy or cheap to go out and get a piece of the correct size conduit used what he had and ran three three lengths of
1/2" conduit about 30 feet long between a breaker panel and a disconnect switch and then put the three conductors for a 75 amp three phase circuit through them, one conductor in each.He called me in to explain why he was getting arcs and sparks where the conduit fittings attached to the panel housing and the switch box every time he tried to start the machine it powered.
Jeff
Bud-- wrote in news:8c3b8$43d14dbd$4213ebbf$ snipped-for-privacy@DIALUPUSA.NET:
Were there changes since the 2002 code regarding this? If not, then
300.20B covers metal raceways OR metal enclosures in scenarios such as this. The metal enclosures part is what applies here.I'm not an electrician but I did rewire my house with an inspection including a circuit with an imbalance like this in the past year. The 2002 code applied. The circuit involves 3 location switch control of half of 2 receptacles with the other half of the receptacles always hot. The room has 3 entrances. A book I have that interprets the code (Electrical Wiring Residential by Ray C. Mullin) has several pages devoted to this topic. My understanding is that this is a well respected textbook for electricians. The author's interpretation is that the code is concerned with induction heating and that is avoided by using all non-metallic wiring and boxes or non-metallic wiring and passing divergent conductors through the same entry point in a metallic box.
4 wire romex is out there but hard to come by and overpriced for what it is. I couldn't get a reasonable quantity for my purpose.Doug
There is a 50/50 chance you are overloading the neutral.
Kevin, this keeps getting worse doesn't it. Keep up the good work. You are right so far.
Just so I know, too, why was he gettint arcs and sparks?
Maybe the panel housing is grounded, the conduit wasn't installed right (loose fittings), and there's a short in the switch box.
Because of voltages induced in the conduit, which is why the code is specific about all conductors of a circuit having to be in ONE conduit or raceway.
Each of the three conductors acted like the primary winding of a transformer, and each piece of conduit acted like a secondary winding.
The ends of the conduits were connected together by the boxes, and some of the mechanical connections there weren't tightened as well as they shold have been. So sparks and a bit of smoke happened at those joints because of the current flowing in them from those shorted out "transformer secondaries" when 75 amps of current flowed through the "primaries".
Even if those mechanical joints had beed socked down so they had low resistance, the conduits would probably have gotten pretty hot just from induced current flowing through them.
If all conductors were in ONE conduit, the magnetic fields from the three wires would have canceled out nearly completely, leaving a negligible remaining field to induce a voltage in the conduit.
Same principle applies for two conductors in a single phase circuit.
Jeff
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