I love the MC-AP but the last I checked it was about $400.00 per 1000' higher than regular MC. Hard to balance out the labor savings.
No good reason for it to be higher - it has less copper than a cable with a copper equipment ground, does have an aluminum bonding strip, and probably roughly the same amount of material composing the sheath.
I picked some HCG MC I had ordered in today. I ask the manager "I thought sheath was painted green" He said the "other" mfg's price was 30% higher for the same thing with the green paint.:rant: This was the same wire less the paint.
The green jacket does have both bonding strip and a copper equipment ground - it is intended to comply with article 517 - to be used in health care facilities where a copper equipment ground plus a raceway or cable sheath that also itself qualifies as an EGC is required.
I know that here we have to have an EG inside of each raceway, so I would think that the MC AP would not be allowed here. Maybe that is why it has been discontinued in your area...??
Been said already - MC is not a raceway it is a cable. It does include an equipment grounding means whether it is AP version or not.
Are you sure about this? The experience I had with ap was that the fittings had to be listed for it, meaning the box was stamped ap or something like that. From what I remember the fitting was a snap in type speed lock there were no screws to it at all.
Just read something that stated the fitting must be listed for mci-a I'llcheck a Def box of mc fittings and see.
Fittings need to be listed for grounding purposes - I don't think you will find any that are listed for use with MC cable that are not also listed for grounding.