What wiring codes say about these wires?

[Joseph]

[Joseph]

You are right I was able to bend it and it takes on teh new shape where you have bent it. Unlike the flexible type that just spring back to the old shape.

[Terry]

[Joseph]

I am not sure what you meant by "the pink" (I think you mean RED?). Also what did you mean by "the orange/purple/yellow striped wires". I am adding another picture with the wires labelled A,B,C,D can you point out which one you are referring to.

[Terry]

I thought you gave up on this.

A to C B to C D to C Should all give you 120V A to C could be 190V this would be the hi leg.

A to B B to D D to A will all give you either 240V or 208V

If you do get something similar to these readings, you could use B to C or D to C for a 120V outlet. You can use A to C if it is not 190V.

[Doug Miller]

And that's the end of the story -- it's not your building.

First, your lease almost certainly prohibits you from making modifications without the landlord's explicit consent.

Second, in most jurisdictions it is against the law for anyone but a licensed electrician to modify premises wiring in an apartment building.

Third, I mean no offense, but it's clear that you don't know what you're doing. If you screw up the wiring in your own single-family house, you're jeopardizing only your own safety and that of your family. Screw up the wiring on a 7-story apartment building, and you're placing dozens or hundreds of lives at risk. Leave it alone.

[Tom Horne, Electrician]

Obtaining type MC cable in the 480/277 volt color scheme requires a special order of a minimum quantity made well in advance in most places. It is not a stock item in many supply houses. What many larger supply house chains do stock at their distribution centers is the white, black, red blue, green type MC with a colored tracer on the white. The code does not require a continuous color for marking different voltages. It only requires that in the case of different voltage systems each one must be marked and the marking scheme must be displayed at the panels. As that requirement is of relatively recent adoption there are millions of unmarked high voltage extensions in use that use the stock MC color scheme.

[Tom Horne, Electrician]

Doug I will admit to having done that 480/277 208/120 volt mix up on purpose on one job. The Terrazzo tile guys had a boom box that was so large and so heavy that it needed it's own cart to bring it on the job. They were asked several times to turn down the radio and they would not. So over night a double pole, double throw switch was set up to the one outlet they were using and their radio emitted a very brief loud shriek. The the switch was thrown back to the 120 volt position immediately and it's interlock cover was locked. They complained very loudly but they had been warned repeatedly that the building outlets had not been excepted by the GC yet and were not available for use. They just hadn't gone to the trouble of stretching out an extension cord. Scratch one huge boom box.

[Terry]

We were on a job with an annoying boom box once. The superintendent kicked it down an elevator shaft.

[Steve Barker]

we had this one guy at a car dealership where I worked that would regularly smoke his lunch and then put on the wildest assed "music" you can imagine every afternoon. His boom box cord was made up almost entirely of red butt connectors. Finally one day, I snipped it flush with the box.