quick electrical question

[Steve Meliza]

If you needed green or white colors, you violated code by remarking them, 6 AWG and smaller is not allowed to be re-identified as grounding, or grounded (neutral) conductors. See 250.119(A), & 200.6(A)

He's not saying that he only bought one spool of #10. My read on this is that he didn't want a green spool in two sizes, a black spool in two sizes, and a white spool in two sizes so he went with all #10 to cut the spool count in half.

Besides, he could have bought one spool of #10 white and still wired everything to code with a little extra effort. And if he didn't want to strip the white insulation off to make bare wire for the ground he could have used EMT for his conduit and skipped the ground wire altogether!

[Chris Padilla]

I bought a spool each of #10 stranded in black, white, red, and green and wired the appropriate colors. My understanding, however, is that the green wire (ground) could have been sized smaller? True or not?

[Steve Meliza]

Copper #12 is good for up to 20A ground but #10 will do through 60A ground, so you still needed the #10 ground to realize the full 30A capability of the current carrying conductors.

[Kevin Goss]

Short answer, yes you can, however 10-3 is expensive so be sure you need it. If you just need 20a 240v you could just use 12-2 and will cost 1/3 to 1/2 as much for the wire. Run the 10-3 when you NEED it. You may never need it. Where im from 50' of 10-3 is $75. You could get 250' of 12-2 for that price. 10 awg is perfectly fine for 20a applications. In industrial situations its used all the time to account for long runs with voltage drop. But like other posters said you could use the nuetral for 120v or for future 3 phase machines. Good luck with your project!

[Jason Roehl]

Copper #12 is good for up to 20A ground but #10 will do through 60A ground, so you still needed the #10 ground to realize the full 30A capability of the current carrying conductors.

Take a gander at 12-2 or 10-2 Romex sometime. The ground wire is smaller--it's not 12-AWG or 10-AWG like the current-carrying conductors, respectively.

[Steve Meliza]

Take a gander at 12-2 or 10-2 Romex sometime. The ground wire is smaller--it's not 12-AWG or 10-AWG like the current-carrying conductors, respectively.

The stuff from the 50's and maybe into the 60's has a smaller ground wire, sure. I assumed he was buying modern wire similar to Romex and conforming to these specifications: http://www.southwire.com/ProductCata...=prodcatsheet6

[Rollie Meyers]

He's not saying that he only bought one spool of #10. My read on this is that he didn't want a green spool in two sizes, a black spool in two sizes, and a white spool in two sizes so he went with all #10 to cut the spool count in half.

Besides, he could have bought one spool of #10 white and still wired everything to code with a little extra effort. And if he didn't want to strip the white insulation off to make bare wire for the ground he could have used EMT for his conduit and skipped the ground wire altogether!

You cannot reidentify a white conductor in a conduit, ever. This is only permitted when they are part of a cable assembly such as NM, or MC, Metal Clad cable. When using a metallic conduit for grounding it eliminates the need to oversize the grounding conductor when the ungrounded conductors are oversized such as using 10 AWG for 20A circuits, see 250.122(B). Many NEC editions ago it was only required to increase the grounding conductor when the ungrounded were increased in size for voltage drop, that exception was dropped in later code cycles, now it has to be done whenever the ungrounded conductor size is increased, even if it was done because it was all that was on the truck.

[Anthony Whitesell]

You cannot reidentify a white conductor in a conduit, ever. This is only permitted when they are part of a cable assembly such as NM, or MC, Metal Clad cable.

That's news to me. I see professional electricians in commercial and industrial applications, re-color-coding black, white, and blue conductors (all not part of a pre-fab cable like NM) constantly. ie. they use lots of colored electrical tape. I did take exception to the instance where the recolored blue to black and black to white, I asked they change the blue to white and leave the black alone.

[Rollie Meyers]

That's news to me. I see professional electricians in commercial and industrial applications, re-color-coding black, white, and blue conductors (all not part of a pre-fab cable like NM) constantly. ie. they use lots of colored electrical tape. I did take exception to the instance where the recolored blue to black and black to white, I asked they change the blue to white and leave the black alone.

You cannot reidentify a WHITE conductor 6 AWG or smaller, and cannot reidentify a green EVER, other then that are no issues, other then no phase tape on 6 AWG & smaller to make it a grounding conductor, it is common to remark a 6 AWG black w/ green tape but it is a code violation, I cannot bring myself to do it but it's not unsafe just a violation.

[Chris Friesen]

You cannot reidentify a WHITE conductor 6 AWG or smaller

Sure you can. 200.7(C)(1) allows you to reidentify a white conductor of 50V or more for use as an ungrounded conductor.

[Phil Thien]

Sure you can. 200.7(C)(1) allows you to reidentify a white conductor of 50V or more for use as an ungrounded conductor.

I think his previous post made clear he was speaking of wire inside a raceway, and he is correct.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Better yet, it is required (to the best of my knowledge) the white conductor of 14/2, 12/2, and the like of NM cable to be taped black when used in 220V application to indicate that it is a hot conductor and not a neutral.

[Rollie Meyers]

Take a gander at 12-2 or 10-2 Romex sometime. The ground wire is smaller--it's not 12-AWG or 10-AWG like the current-carrying conductors, respectively.

This is not the case w/ cables since the 1971 NEC was released prior to that the grounding conductor was 16 AWG for 12 & 14 AWG NM cable, since then the grounding conductor is the same size for as the grounded (neut.), & ungrounded (hot) conductors in 10, 12, & 14 AWG cables.