I am moving my basement workshop to a new location. Currently it has
50 A sub-panel that I want to remove. How to do this, namely what to do with the wire that goes from main panel to the sub-panel? It is burried inside walls and goes through entire house and one story.
You can just abandon it. Cut it off at the panel end so it cannot be hooked up again leaving exposed live wires.
If it's not going to be used, terminate it on both ends back where isn't going to be in any danger of getting into anything live and leave it.
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Does code allow just cutting wire on both ends and wrapping it with electric tape?
If this line may have a possible future use, I would install it in a flush box with a blank cover, tape the ends and leave it. If you really want to totally abandon it, I would remove the other end of the cable from the breaker box, and cut the cable outside of the box, making it impossible to reconnect without splicing it.
Yes (actually, isn't a Code issue, specifically)
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Suggest; just cut it back flush with something, both ends so no chance of anything touching or reconnecting to it, and abandon it! Just like it never existed.
However if it ever may be any use; just because it is a wire gauge suitable for 50 amp, doesn't mean it couldn't be hooked up to say a
15 amp breaker, extended using 14AWG and used for some extra lighting etc.We have a couple of 'dead at both ends' wire runs like that and have stuck a metal box on both end and marked the box covers "Dead wiring. Was such and such .....". Inside each box each wire has a single wire nut on it. The ground wire is connected box to box.
Not sure if this is completely compliant but appears safe to us.
Actually I would reuse it but in differenmt sense. I would like to use it for ordinary 20 A wiring (lighting, receptacles) in the room that is now workshop. I would like it to connect in main panel to 20 A breaker and on other end in the now workshop to a box and twist it with 20 A wire. However can I put I believe AWG 8 wire which is really thick into ordinary plastic or metal box and twist it with AWG 12 wire?
I don't have the code reference, but I'm pretty sure that you are not allowed to mix different wire gauges on a branch circuit, even if the smallest is adequate for the overcurrent protection device.
nate
ls02 wrote: ...
Surely; just use properly-sized wire nuts for the two conductors.
It may be the terminal for the breaker isn't large enough to accommodate the larger wire directly; if so, use a pigtail.
The panel fusing is sized to protect the minimum wiring size on the circuit and the minimum wiring size is predicated on the load; they're a circular argument if you will. That there is a section of larger wire that is over-sized for that minimum required is ok as long as nothing is connected that is under the minimum. (I think another poster already mentioned this possibility).
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Then why didn't you say that to begin with? Incredible, you expect people to read your tiny mind.
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