12/4 w/ grd. in residential panel

Status
Not open for further replies.
F

FREEBALL

Senior Member
Location
york pa usa
Started a new unfinished basement job today well half is finished and half is not. I found my first piece of 12/4 w/ ground in a panel. I thought well wow. The old homeowner or someone ran this to panel and must have had some sort of knowledge because they used a common trip for 2 ungrounded conductors and a single pole to the other. But I guess they forgot the issues with loading the neutral on the same phase lol. Is this something that should be looked at in regards to the use of this type of romex.
 
It can be used for say a 240 volt circuit and a 120 volt circuit where the single neutral will not be an issue but yes this can easily confuse the untrained to the point of the connections being incorrect and the neutral being overloaded.
 
It's 12/2/2w ground. The holy grail of nm-b use it quite often to consolidate circuit lay out.
Run 2 circuits when separate neutrals are needed (great for the use of afci's/gfi breakers), get 3 switch legs (how about those vent/light/night lights), need that extra neutral or constant feed to go from one switch box to another in a 3way setup ( oh yeh ).
It is pricey but saves a lot of ladder work.
 
Point well taken I did not trace this out and I can tell it is wiring that was added after the home was completed. There is no marking in the panel schedule except for the marking the original electrician made, which is very accurate and neat. The wiring that was done afterwards is run on the bottom of the joists and joined in small blue b118 boxes hammered on the joists. So I will be surprised if the circuit is in deed fed the way you mentioned I will let you know however.



infinity said:
It can be used for say a 240 volt circuit and a 120 volt circuit where the single neutral will not be an issue but yes this can easily confuse the untrained to the point of the connections being incorrect and the neutral being overloaded.
Click to expand...
 
iwire said:
I am impressed you can see that from your seat. :D

I have never used 12/2/2 NM but I have used 12/4 NM.


Freeball, was there white, black, red, blue or was there two whites?
Click to expand...

I was thinking that Steve made a guess but the OP did say 12/4. I've used both. :)
 
Last month was the first time I used 14/2/2 and 14/4. I had to special order it. I used the 14/4 for some LED lighting controls
 
iwire said:
I am impressed you can see that from your seat. :D

I have never used 12/2/2 NM but I have used 12/4 NM.


Freeball, was there white, black, red, blue or was there two whites?
Click to expand...

The ones Ive seen have a red tracer on one white to see which is common to the red wire.
 
Yes your right I have seen the 12/4 before with the black, red, blue and white but seems a bit rare and if I remember correctly the last piece of it I saw looked to be in the 40s-50's era.
 
Infinity, the circuit does feed a 240v motor anyway it feeds a pool pump set up the 120v feeds a gfi for pool accessories and the 240v feeds a pump motor through a controller, it still shares the neutral however in the control panel, however Im not sure what phase its used with I didn't open it all up. Thanx for the responses Im not sure Im in favor of 12/4 in the hands of homeowners LOL

all be safe and happy holidays
 
Just for the record.....most cable and wire manufacturers make both. We for example make 14-4, 12/4, 12-2-2 and 14-2-2.

Here is the basic color scheme used :

**Color-Coding for four-color conductor NM-B Black, White, Red and Blue. I Color-Code for 2-2 conductor is Black, Red, White and White with a Red Stripe.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top