Conduit Body Fill

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Kris24

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Location
Lehighton, PA
I recently ran across a new installation on a site performed by another contractor. The contractor had spliced (4) #12 conductors (3 current carrying and 1 ground) in a 3/4" Form 7 LB. The LB is clearly marked with 7.0 Cu. in. fill. Based on my calculations this a a code violation, just wanted to get other peoples opinions.
 
augie47

augie47

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Staff member
Location
Tennessee
Occupation
State Electrical Inspector (Retired)
It all gets down to what weight hammer is needed to get the cover flush :D

Seriously, welcome to the Forum.
Conduit fitting space violation (pulling & splicing) ranks way up there in number of violations I;m sure.
 
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Kris24

Member
Location
Lehighton, PA
How does this work with the max conductors on the inside of the conduit body? It clearly states (3) #6 max, but by calculating that out that would be 15 cu.in. for (3) #6 conductors.
 
luckylerado

luckylerado

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
So, one of these can be spliced in and the other cannot? Is there anything officially defining "short radius" because I don't see how the radius is much different. I do not believe that 314.16(C)(2) allows splicing in such things as LB and LT.



SELB.jpg

LB.jpg

opposed to


LR.jpg
 
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jusme123

Senior Member
Location
NY
Occupation
JW
luckylerado said:
So, one of these can be spliced in and the other cannot? Is there anything officially defining "short radius" because I don't see how the radius is much different. I do not believe that 314.16(C)(2) allows splicing in such things as LB and LT.
Click to expand...

...its not the size or the shape of the LB, its the stamped cubic inches inside the LB that determines if spices are allowed.
 
infinity

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
It's a violation but I would guess that most of us here could easily splice 8-#12's in a conduit body without any problems.
 
luckylerado

luckylerado

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
K8MHZ said:
4 x 2.25 = 9. Box is marked 7.
Click to expand...

I do not think that is correct. Without splices the calculation would be for raceway fill not for box fill.

314.16(C)(1)"...the maximum number of conductors permitted
shall be the maximum number permitted by Table 1 of
Chapter 9 for the conduit or tubing to which it is attached."
 
luckylerado

luckylerado

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
K8MHZ said:
So, in a nutshell, if there are no splices a conduit body is treated like the conduit that it's connected to. If a splice exists, it is now treated like a box instead.
Click to expand...

I agree. Just for the sake of argument, I would think then that if splices are present in a conduit body, the conduit fill of the entire raceway system on all sides of the conduit body is limited by the # of conductors allowed by the available volume of the conduit body.

In this case the 3/4" EMT on both sides of the LB is limited to 2 #12AWG up to the next point of termination and only one of them could splice in the LB...

I see a lot of splices in LTs on boat docks and it always bugs me.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
I sometimes may cheat a little by splicing an EGC in a conduit body, where technically it does overfill the conduit body, but with no other conductors being spliced there is still plenty of room for splicing that one conductor, without that splice you don't have to consider fill of the conduit body but with even just one splice every conductor needs counted.
 
L

lauraj

Senior Member
Location
Portland, Oregon
From 2014 NEC 314.16(C)(1)

"The maximum number of conductors permitted shall be the maximum number permitted by Table 1 of Chapter 9 for the conduit or tubing to which it is attached."
 
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