Is anyone familiar with blue sheathed 14/2?

[gary]

I was in Home Depot yesterday and noticed they had blue sheathed 14/2. What is that for? It looks just like the white sheathed wire. I know that 12/2 is now yellow. But the blue....???

Gary

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, I think color does not have special meaning. I saw blue, brown, orange, white, black, yellow colors.

[mm]

Blue is for boys.

[herlihyboy]

I was told that they changed the colors so that inspectors and others would easily know the gauge of the wire without trying to read the impossible-to-read writing on the side of the wire. So, they now see yellow and know it's 12. To the OP, I had thought 14 was still always white, but I guess not.

[Jeff]

When we had our kitchen redone the electrician used yellow wire, he said so inspector could tell old from new.

[dpb]

Yep, it doesn't... :)

I did a quick dags to see if I could find any reference to a new standard for cable sheathing colors and it came up empty. I'm nearly certain the color is simply a convenience for installer (keeping easier track of multiple cables in a single run path, for example).

[MDT at Paragon Home Inspection]

It's not a "standard", but from some manufactuers (for example, Southwire) NM is:

White - 14 AWG Yellow - 12 AWG Orange - 10 AWG Black - 8 AWG and 6 AWG

Michael Thomas Paragon Home Inspection, LLC Chicago, IL mdt@paragoninspectsDOTcom

847-475-5668

[dpb]

...

Yeah, I just found another manufacturer's catalog has the codings as well...

Ya' larns sumthin' all the time... :)

I guess what threw me was old stock on the same shelf -- yellow and white 12/2 from the same manufacturer were side-by-side last time I bought a roll retail (which has been a while) so I just figured it was a "users' choice" thingy...makes sense to have a code, however, assuming everybody will either use the same one or stick w/ white. If various manufactuers do other odd things (like, where's the blue come from OP noted in the above chart?) then it's worse than everything one color for the unexperienced average joe who can't recognize a 12 from a

10 or 14 simply from the size of the bare conductor...

[dpb]

OK, I looked outside of any official standards and found another manufactuer (Encore) besides the one (Southwire) Michael Thomas posted using the same code--but no blue.

[gary]

Its so the inspector knows that 12 gauge wire was used there.

[sym]

ive seen blue romex but it was older wire20 plus years old id say maybe someone found an old supply and put it out there?

[whippy]

the blue 14/2 is used to identify arc fault circuits.

[mj]

Yes, blue jacketed romex is for use in bedrooms which are protected with an AFCI (arc fault) breaker.

[mj]

Circuits that are AFCI protected require the blue jacketed romex. It is to differentiate between an AFCI breaker and a regular circuit breaker.

[Clare Snyder]

Not officially rerquires but often used.