Conductors to lug / marking of conductors

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royguard

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austin tx
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construction consultant
Is it acceptable to have to conductors going to the same lug? I always thought "no"

Also, is black tap around white conductors being used for hot conductors acceptable identification?

Thanks!

RG
 

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royguard said:
Is it acceptable to have to conductors going to the same lug? I always thought "no"
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it is OK if it is listed that way. Keep in mind there are usually some restrictions such as the size of the conductors where the listing allows it.
royguard said:
Also, is black tap around white conductors being used for hot conductors acceptable identification?
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generally no.
 
Thanks so much!

Minor question: Isn't there a requirement on how for insulation jackets on the wiring can extend into the panel. I was trying to find the NEC reference but couldn't
 
royguard said:
Thanks so much!

Minor question: Isn't there a requirement on how for insulation jackets on the wiring can extend into the panel. I was trying to find the NEC reference but couldn't
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I think there is a minimum requirement for how far the jacket can extend into the box but not a maximum. See 314.17.
 
petersonra said:
it is OK if it is listed that way. Keep in mind there are usually some restrictions such as the size of the conductors where the listing allows it.
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Correct, and if it is going to be inspected, you would need to be ready to document that the lug is indeed listed for multiple conductors (being stamped on the lug itself counts, but paper from the mfr is OK too),. If you cannot prove it in writing, the default position is no.

On the one in your photo, probably not.
 
Both of those electrode conductors will fit in the standard bus holes, and the lower one will easily reach.
 
I read 314.17......no maximum requirement. I'm seeing the jacket extend at to about 3 inches at several spots....
 
petersonra said:
Why do you think that? It is safe and code compliant.
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I'd bet that there is not one professional electrician on this forum that would leave 3" of jacket on a cable inside of the panel, therefore it's unprofessional hack work. To each his own it is code complaint but this coming from a guy who lines up the screws on a finish plate.
 
infinity said:
I'd bet that there is not one professional electrician on this forum that would leave 3" of jacket on a cable inside of the panel, therefore it's unprofessional hack work.
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Generally, like with new work, I agree, but there are times, like adding a cable to a crowded existing panel, where I'll only strip the sheath as far back as is easy and convenient, or even leave extra as it passes near live terminals, to avoid accidental EGC contact.
 
So....FYI - What I have to deal with sometimes (LOL!) .....Come to find out that the homeowner is a builder and built the house himself which is within city limits. He also stated that the he personally did all the electrical work, was not a licensed electrican, and that city permits were not required as he was doing "repairs"....installing all the electrical is repairs???......... Banging my head against the wall....I need a beer.....thanks for ya'alls help!
 
infinity said:
I'd bet that there is not one professional electrician on this forum that would leave 3" of jacket on a cable inside of the panel, therefore it's unprofessional hack work. To each his own it is code complaint but this coming from a guy who lines up the screws on a finish plate.
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I cannot see anything wrong with leaving more of the jacket inside a box than the bare minimum required by code. There's just nothing unsafe about it, it meets code, and it's not ugly since no one can see it anyway. It's not like it has any negative attribute other than you don't do it that way.
 
petersonra said:
I cannot see anything wrong with leaving more of the jacket inside a box than the bare minimum required by code. There's just nothing unsafe about it, it meets code, and it's not ugly since no one can see it anyway. It's not like it has any negative attribute other than you don't do it that way.
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Lots of reasons NOT to strip off the jacket. Like on communication conductors like CAT 5E. Multi conductor cables where leaving it in the jacket makes a neater job since otherwise you’d need Panduit and/or lots of wire ties. Or shielded cables especially. I’ve seen a lot of shielded Essex cable around here where idiots take the jacket all the way down to the cable gland with the grounds/drains just dangling all over. So you have several FEET of loose copper spiral shielding just dangling loose so it is utterly useless and prone to damage and should be taped up to secure it. It’s kind of a bad cable design anyway but this just makes it so much worse.

NM is one thing but lots of other cable types are not so good to strip back.

Also you CAN reidentify white wires as ungrounded conductors in multiconductor assemblies. See NEC 200.7(C). An example would be using NM for 240 V or the travelers in 3 way switches where both travelers are ungrounded. In industrial fior instance a lot of SO cord is red, black, white, green. In 3 phase 3 wire the white gets reidentified. Also a lot of signal cables and CT cables have a pair of black and white wires although I don’t usually see anyone bother to tape the white as ungrounded.

In industrial I often leave the jacket on and bring the cable neatly to where I strip back the jacket to do two nice looking S curves on A and C phase and B straight through. This looks much better than a rats nest of individual conductors looking like a distribution panel in tract housing.
 
That does not look like black tape on a white conductor to me. Looks like a white conductor with a factory provide black covering. I have seen that a few times over the year.
 
I'm not seeing any black tape anywhere. One of the 6-2 or 8-2 cables seems to have part of sheath that didn't get trimmed off and maybe what some think is tape?

I think I am seeing the service or feeder conductors in same entry as a few of the NM cables - be interesting to see where those end up at and how they get there if that is the case.
 
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