Type NM in conduit for protection must have the outer jacket intact.

Use NM, MC or flex with thhn inside. Do not use conduit to connect to the water heater. If you do, good luck getting the conductors pulled into the teeny-tiny wiring compartment.

Thanks bus_driver. I was looking at how my basement lights were done when the house was built 13 years ago: One 3 way switch by the Bilco door is in a metal 4x4 box, with conduit running to the ceiling. Romex comes out of the conduit on top(through a cable clamp) and goes to the box at the top of the stairs. There was NO jacket inside the conduit. I was going to follow suit. Glad I asked here.

btharmy: I'll follow your suggestion and use MC as I've seen this in many illustrations. Thanks for the warning against conduit.

This post was edited by tom418 on Tue, Aug 13, 13 at 22:57