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poobaloo

Two circuits thru one pipe

poobaloo
11 years ago

If you're pulling two general outlet circuits thru one pipe (residential, chicagoland so yes, pipe) do you pull white / black and white / black or pick two additional colors? Easier to identify the lines but more costly to get two more spools of wire... Any requirements in the NEC on this?
Thank you!

Comments (6)

  • randy427
    11 years ago

    Neutrals must be white. Hot legs may be any other color except green. No problem with them both being black.

  • bus_driver
    11 years ago

    Rarely seen in residential, gray is also reserved for neutral. Article 200. Useful to identify the neutral of one circuit from another. When I did my shop, bought some surplus, but new, wire in TW, THW and THHN in most colors of the spectrum. Maroon, yellow, orange, light gray, dark gray, light blue, dark blue, pink. Each conductor size, type, color was on it's own spool or plastic-wrapped coil. Some of the neutrals in the shop are gray. The wire was sometimes partial spools. Cost was just half of that of new at the supply house at that time.

    This post was edited by bus_driver on Fri, Feb 22, 13 at 17:01

  • Ron Natalie
    11 years ago

    Chicago has it's own electrical code. It's in the Municipal Code you can find online Title 18, Chapter 18-27.
    If you look carefully you'll see it follows the the NEC fairly closely. As far as the conductor identification, it's word for word the same.

    The rest, as alluded to by the original poster, can be quite divergent. NM cable is quite restricted and the entire article 300 is pretty divergent from the NEC.

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    For such a small job I would buzz it out after pulling.

    It is not like you have a lot of neutrals, just two.

    Leave one hanging at both ends, short the other end to a hot, measure the resistance.

    The hooked up neutral and hot will be zero ohms (and should be low enough for the beep function of a digital meter).

    Mark them as a pair (just a turn of tape around both wires)

    The other hot and neutral are the second pair mark them the same way).

    If this was a large job it might be worth using serrate hot and neutral colors (red and gray) but not on a small job.

  • poobaloo
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    That was basically my thought, it's just one run and I can tag them, I just wanted to be sure the circuits didnt have to be visually identifiable as to which went with which. If tape is fine then tape it is. Not buy red and gray for the single use. (good to know about gray being an alternate for neutrals tho, didn't know that).

    Thank you all!

  • Ron Natalie
    11 years ago

    Tape is fine, other labels that are more permanent will save the later person working on the circuits.