Red tape on white wire?

[ggunn]

Something I have seen several times lately is a white wire with red marking tape connected to a breaker in a panel. Is that NEC compliant? I didn't think you could do that.

 

[iwire]

Something I have seen several times lately is a white wire with red marking tape connected to a breaker in a panel. Is that NEC compliant? I didn't think you could do that.

If the circuit is in a raceway you cannot use a white wire as a hot even if you tape it another color.


If the circuit is in cable or cord you are allowed to use the white as a hot but are required to mark it at at both ends.

 

[480sparky]

If the circuit is in a raceway you cannot use a white wire as a hot even if you tape it another color.

If the circuit is in cable or cord you are allowed to use the white as a hot but are required to mark it at at both ends.

And any access points along the run.

 

[jap]

And any access points along the run.

What does this mean?


JAP>

 

[jap]

Never mind.
I think I get what your sayin.

JAP>

 

[winnie]

In a facility that my company rented for a while, the service was corner ground delta, and the existing wiring used white with red tape for the grounded circuit conductor.

I don't know if this was compliant, but it did make it clear that this was a grounded conductor used like a 'hot'

-Jon

 

[don_resqcapt19]

In a facility that my company rented for a while, the service was corner ground delta, and the existing wiring used white with red tape for the grounded circuit conductor.

I don't know if this was compliant, but it did make it clear that this was a grounded conductor used like a 'hot'

-Jon

That conductor is required to be white and it is no more of a "grounded conductor used like a hot" than is a neutral of a wye system.

 

[ggunn]

If the circuit is in a raceway you cannot use a white wire as a hot even if you tape it another color.


If the circuit is in cable or cord you are allowed to use the white as a hot but are required to mark it at at both ends.

What about in the walls of a house? That's where I am seeing it (in residential panelboards).

 

[jap]

Look at 200.7 (c)1 and210.5 (c) 1,2 &3.

JAP>

 

[iwire]

And any access points along the run.

It's a cable 480, if you mark both ends if it you have accomplished this. Unless you install pull points in cables.

 

[iwire]

What about in the walls of a house? That's where I am seeing it (in residential panelboards).

Same applies, you can remark a white in a cable and you can't remark a white in a raceway.

 

[jap]

It's a cable 480, if you mark both ends if it you have accomplished this. Unless you install pull points in cables.

That's what threw me off.
Evidently there are different views of "Both Ends".

I was thinking both ends of the cable regardless of how many ends that would be between points A & B. Basically anywhere the outer jacket is removed.

Not just the very ends of the run.


JAP>

 

[GoldDigger]

The grounded conductor is a grounded wire "used like a hot" only in the sense that it can go to one of the terminals of a three phase motor and it is part of the phase rotation. The latter is one argument for putting an indicator tape on it, but I suspect it is still non-compliant.
If the other two wires are indicated black and blue you can deduce that the white is the "red" phase line.

 

[iwire]

The grounded conductor is a grounded wire "used like a hot" only in the sense that it can go to one of the terminals of a delta connected motor and it is part of the phase rotation. The latter is one argument for putting an indicator tape on it, but I suspect it is still non-compliant.
If the other two wires are indicated black and blue you can deduce that the white is the "red" phase line.

:huh:

 

[ggunn]

The grounded conductor is a grounded wire "used like a hot" only in the sense that it can go to one of the terminals of a three phase motor and it is part of the phase rotation. The latter is one argument for putting an indicator tape on it, but I suspect it is still non-compliant.
If the other two wires are indicated black and blue you can deduce that the white is the "red" phase line.

I am talking about single phase residential panels.

 

[jap]

Out of habit they probably think of 2 ungrounded legs of a single phase panel as colors Black for A phase and Red for B Phase.
Seeing as how one of the conductors in 12/2 is already black, that's probably why they're taping the white wire Red for the 2nd phase of a 240v branch circuit.

At least that's my best guess anyway.

JAP>

 

[480sparky]

It's a cable 480, if you mark both ends if it you have accomplished this. Unless you install pull points in cables.

Sorry. I guess you've never installed splice boxes in cable runs.

 

[Smart $]

Sorry. I guess you've never installed splice boxes in cable runs.

Once the sheath is removed from the cable, you must either make a compliant cable termination or re-sheath the cable. In this vain, a cable will always have two ends and no exposed conductors in between ends.

 

[jap]

Once the sheath is removed from the cable, you must either make a compliant cable termination or re-sheath the cable. In this vain, a cable will always have two ends and no exposed conductors in between ends.

Are you saying
If I pull a NM cable from point A to point B and in the middle of the run I bend the cable in half but don't cut it and shove it into a single gang box for a future outlet then go back and strip the outside sheath off of the NM in that box but don't cut the wires that I have to re sheath it or I've created a code violation if I don't terminate?

Or leave a stripped NM folded up but not terminated in a panel?


JAP

 

[iwire]

Sorry. I guess you've never installed splice boxes in cable runs.

I am sorry this simple concept is beyond you. One cable has only two ends, if I add a junction box there is more than one cable or conductor.