What do you have when you strip the ends of two wires, then twist them together, and then screw a wire nut over them?
Isn't that a non-binary connection?
Aren´t tons of US homes wired that way?
Or home appliance innards?
I hate those, much prefer soldered connections or pressed by screws or nuts or crimped into terminals but apparently they are quick/practical/cheap and obviously allowed, so I can´t complain.
Agree with this, although in my book soldering is better, IF possible.
Or home appliance innards?
I hate those, much prefer soldered connections or pressed by screws or nuts or crimped into terminals but apparently they are quick/practical/cheap and obviously allowed, so I can´t complain.
Agree with this, although in my book soldering is better, IF possible.
Your picture with clear wirenuts and semi-clear box is very non-US; it is a BS-rules (UK) patress. I'm not sure the cables go through the holes that way, rather than with sheath and rubber stoppers?
Solder was common well into the 1900s but got a very bad reputation. Bad (hot!) joints, sometimes molten solder ejected. It is not banned (AFAIK) but no town inspector will sign-off without a major confrontation. Yes, you and I do good solder on a bench, or rarely under a dashboard (maybe, when I was younger). Doing a whole house up a ladder or inside walls withOUT an electric iron (!) is tougher to do right. Then you must tape well. Once taped the joint is essentially un-inspectable.
Wirenuts take skill and practice but if the inspector is an old electrician (mine isn't) he (always he) can shake it and know if it will make trouble.
The push-ins are OK to half the wire rating, since they only make point(s) contact. The WAGOs are some better but rare here. Either type (or blue plastic boxes) marks you as an Amateur, expect extra inspection.
Blue boxes?? Whoa. dinna think of that.
When the inspector came in to look over my work, I casually asked him if code of record was 2005 or 2008, as I've been using 2008 for work despite the DOE requiring 2005.
There were many implications in that question...
1. I knew what I was doing.
2. I was more advanced than him.
3. I had lots of experience with commercial and non commercial installations.
He indicated 2005, and we both agreed that it is odd having the states three years behind current release, and that I had a second copy of 2008 upstairs if he would like one.
Boy, did I get over. While I think I did everything correctly, I'm not experienced with house installs.. so was ahem..worried about modifiying my undergarment's status from that of "dry" to another state...
From what I recall, code states that for bonding conductors, solder is not allowed to be the only thing holding the conductors together. There has to be a good strong mechanical connection first, then the entire thing can be soldered.
PS..JmFahey: US houses are absolutely NOT wired that way...
We use black, white, and copper. Red for fourth.. 60 hz electrons do NOT like blue, brown and yellow insulation. It's a directionality thing..
Well, 120 volt electrons anyway...480 volt electrons are happier with other colors. Over 600, all electrons are happy with black insulation.
John
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The only thing in my new living room wiring which might refer a specific recent Code was the child-proof (shuttered) outlets. I just used the dratted things. (I think open outlets are educational, but I don't have teachable children here....)
So I have >600V coming to my main box and garage box?? It's just three black #2 wires. Not even a hint which is "N". (I got really sure before I added color-tape in preparation for my secret fusebox swap.) Yes, I ID-ed both hots because I added V/A metering and wanted to know which side was carrying excess (so far, neither: unbalance is less than 12 Amps).
Yeah, the wrong-colors in JMF's example didn't strike me until later. I been hanging in the wrong sorts of places too much (like here). Blue and brown, and that silly green/yellow, look almost normal online now; if I found those colors in my wall I'd flip out. (I have been seeing them in electric cords, but I just paint them all black....)
My problem was trying to maintain a standard. Red means high voltage, green ground.. As part of the machine design, I pronounced that as gospel..
Then equipment from europe had yellow//green with blue/brown conductors..total anarchy. So much for gospel, everybody called my bluff..
Now I fight red or green cat5e cables, The minute you set a standard, everyone else around the world see that as a challenge.
Sigh. I will fight the fight......until I retire.
Perhaps not long.
Till then, I get paid.
My service feed is all black. My next door neighbor has blue and white. I guess the indiv electricians have their signature move.
John
Then equipment from europe had yellow//green with blue/brown conductors..total anarchy. So much for gospel, everybody called my bluff..
Now I fight red or green cat5e cables, The minute you set a standard, everyone else around the world see that as a challenge.
Sigh. I will fight the fight......until I retire.
Perhaps not long.
Till then, I get paid.
My service feed is all black. My next door neighbor has blue and white. I guess the indiv electricians have their signature move.
John
When I post tongue in cheek, I try not to mix reality in without good demarcations.
I see the black/white/copper as standard, with red for 240 (USA).
One issue I've had is using drag chain rated cabling for stuff that moves. Most of what I find online is helucable, totally europe with europe colors.
John
Most of the residential service feeds I see around here (US) are three blacks. The neutral is supposed to be either white or clearly marked at both ends. Usually it’s white cloth adhesive tape. I guess electricians can usually find it in their first-aid kit (White electrical tape requires a separate trip to the store). I have also seen it NOT marked even though it is supposed to be. The only hard and fast rules are white is reserved for neutral and green (or bare) for reserved for ground. Most cable intended for branch circuits comes with a black hot, or a black and a red for 3 wire W/G. Technically you can use another color, but you wont find blue Romex. Maybe coming from your transformer to your meter socket. When they start doing 3 phase, usually they pull wires thru conduit for all circuits instead of using Romex or the metal equivalent, so it’s not limited to just the black and red — and they need another color (usually blue).
Then there was the local fellow:
Green is for "Go" so that is the hot lead.
Black is like dirt so that is the safety ground.
White gives up, so that is the neutral.
Wonder why he got fired???
Of course the tale is true, who could make up idiocy like that!
Green is for "Go" so that is the hot lead.
Black is like dirt so that is the safety ground.
White gives up, so that is the neutral.
Wonder why he got fired???
Of course the tale is true, who could make up idiocy like that!
I hate wire nuts.
I had a weird intermittent failure from one of those.
Prior they asked me for help they had tampered wires and blown many fuses trial an error going.
A mess, there was no way to exactly know what had been done.
I had days of work to finally locate a loose wire in a wire nut that was intermittently on and off at a RETURN wire ( not the PHASE ).
You connect all the wires in the box together and put on one big green wirenut, right?
Should have seen the face on the journeyman electrician I was working with - until he realized I was kidding.
Some cables are directional, in a sense. Back in '89, when I rescued GE's multimillion jet engine rebuild facility for THAI airways in Bangkok, the previous "expert" had wired over an acre of electrochemical processing tanks IN REVERSE.
What this accomplished, was any parts from jet engine refurb that went into the tanks at hundreds of amps / ft^2 dissolved (hard chrome on turbine shafts, anodized aluminum seat tracks, heavy nickel/tungsten gear repair, etc., rather than receive the necessary buildup of (chrome, nickel, brass, copper, whatever), and no one could figure out why lots of high value jet engine parts were being ruined.
What a mess.
So, as most of this was DC high current electrochemistry (moving heavy metal ions ain't easy) once I swapped the hundreds of feet of 4 ought welding cables from (+) to (-), all was hunky dory. There was alot of other ******** going on as well (black chrome, phosphating, salt spray setup, etc. I also had to sort out, but that's a different kettle of fish) The electrons didn't care about the cable colors (they were big black stranded honkers) but it DID matter which polarity was connected to the anodes and cathodes.
What this accomplished, was any parts from jet engine refurb that went into the tanks at hundreds of amps / ft^2 dissolved (hard chrome on turbine shafts, anodized aluminum seat tracks, heavy nickel/tungsten gear repair, etc., rather than receive the necessary buildup of (chrome, nickel, brass, copper, whatever), and no one could figure out why lots of high value jet engine parts were being ruined.
What a mess.
So, as most of this was DC high current electrochemistry (moving heavy metal ions ain't easy) once I swapped the hundreds of feet of 4 ought welding cables from (+) to (-), all was hunky dory. There was alot of other ******** going on as well (black chrome, phosphating, salt spray setup, etc. I also had to sort out, but that's a different kettle of fish) The electrons didn't care about the cable colors (they were big black stranded honkers) but it DID matter which polarity was connected to the anodes and cathodes.
Now I understand why you call those folks “sparkies!” A good wirenut has a conical spring in the center so that as you tighten it, the force holding the wires goes way up. Also the spring is often a square cross section so that it bites into the conductors.
