Bathroom light fed with #14

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infinity

infinity

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I have a bathroom light mounted about 3' above the wall switch. The entire bathroom including the light is fed with one 20 amp circuit. The feed to the light is about 4' of #14 NM cable. Is this legal? I say yes, inspector says no.
 
infinity said:
Is this legal? I say yes, inspector says no.
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Hopefully....before everyone chimes in with articles...YOU can tell us:
- your justification
- inspectors justification
 
Well, we were cleaning out a pile of old wire and came across some #12 NM that had a white jacket (now we always use the yellow stuff). We used it up in the bathroom. Turns out that one piece, the one going to the fixture was #14. I made the executive decision to leave it based on my argument the 4' of #14 is a fixture tap. No different than a 6' fixture whip with #14 conductors protected at 20 amps. His argument, #14=15 amp OCPD. Jury is still out while he checks it out. Opinions?
 
This has come up before, using 14 for switch legs, fixture feeds etc. Fact remains if the circuit is protected at 20A. then all conductors must have ampacity of 20A. These lay in fixtures we see with a 6 ft. whip using what looks like No. 16 or 18 are probably listed as an assembly thus making them legal.
 
electricman2 said:
This has come up before, using 14 for switch legs, fixture feeds etc. Fact remains if the circuit is protected at 20A. then all conductors must have ampacity of 20A. These lay in fixtures we see with a 6 ft. whip using what looks like No. 16 or 18 are probably listed as an assembly thus making them legal.
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We have in the past made up 3/8" FMC-6' fixture whips with #14, #16 and #18 conductors. I don't think that there is a requirement for them to be part of a listed assembly.
 
Trevor , it is branch circuit wiring not a fixture wire. While not the end of the world perhaps it is, in my opinion a violation.
 
Sorry Trevor but you can't win this one. If the light is only 3' above the wall switch it can't be that hard to change.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Sorry Trevor but you can't win this one. If the light is only 3' above the wall switch it can't be that hard to change.
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I agree but that's not the point. If a 6' piece of flex with #18 conductors is permitted on a 20 amp circuit than why wouldn't a 4' piece of NM be permitted? Fixture taps are permitted if they are under a certain length.
 
infinity said:
Fixture taps are permitted if they are under a certain length.
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Yes but they are not run in the walls like branch circuit wiring. They are part of the fixture assembly or assembled by the electrician in certain case. This is not one of those cases.

When you wire a surface mounted fixture the wire that is connected to the socket is 16 or 18 gauge (I don't know) but the wire feeding the fixture must match that of the circuit provided (it can be larger).

Will there ever be a problem with what you did. Probably not. In fact I can't imagine how there could be a problem but it is not code compliant.
 
Unlikely in this case to cause a problem but still not code compliant.The danger is in what might be tapped from this wire some day.What you have done is throw up a red flag to this inspector to watch your work more carefully.And if it has a box behind this fixture then its not a whip.And most fixtures of this type would require a box
 
Jim W in Tampa said:
Unlikely in this case to cause a problem but still not code compliant.The danger is in what might be tapped from this wire some day.What you have done is throw up a red flag to this inspector to watch your work more carefully.And if it has a box behind this fixture then its not a whip.And most fixtures of this type would require a box
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It could be just as likely that a fixture fed with a #18 whip could be tapped in the future also. Does anyone have an article that says this is a specific violation?
 
This is just one of the 10000's of quirkie things in the code. It is not a factory whip. Sorry you loose. It is a violation.
 
infinity said:
It could be just as likely that a fixture fed with a #18 whip could be tapped in the future also. Does anyone have an article that says this is a specific violation?
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Slight differance,if it is a fixture with #18 the next electrician will see the wire and know to stop.In this case he sees #14 and assumes its a branch circuit and adds a load that might go over the 15 amp safe amps.Very unlikely but the inspector did his job.
 
fixture wire that comes with fixture is approved under different rules and is rated for different use and temperature, you installed #14 gauge wire rated for 75C and 15A, the fixture didn't come with 14 gauge NMD. Why not change the breaker to 15A and solve the problem easy.
 
402.5 "allowable amp. fixture fixture wires. Thhn is not in this table. Therefore its a branch cir., IMO.
 
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