cubicle circuits

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gbedusa

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I am working on a job where we are connecting building powerto a UL listed furniture wiring system. The furniture vendor is supplying theelectrical including duplex ?location? which is the circuit it attaches to, inits 8 wire set up (one 3 phase set and one iso set [duplex #1,2,3, & 4]) for the furniture. This was previously ordered a month in advancewith the furniture so when I attached to the furniture whip I just tied intothe colors the furniture guy told me he used (i.e. my blue c phase in the j boxto his black in the whip for his #1 duplex). The inspector here in Sunrise isasking for the phasing in the furniture to match the buildings colors (i.e. myc phase to go on the blue wire of the whip their #3 duplex). I never had thisissue before, and it?s holding up a final and the furniture guy can?t get thenew duplex?s to match until next week. Is that the way the code reads once thecircuitry leaves building power and in running through a manufactured product. Ifso I have been doing this wrong for over 20 years?
 
Sounds like the inspector has nothing better to do. What code reference did he cite?
 
gbedusa said:

I am working on a job where we are connecting building powerto a UL listed furniture wiring system. The furniture vendor is supplying theelectrical including duplex ?location? which is the circuit it attaches to, inits 8 wire set up (one 3 phase set and one iso set [duplex #1,2,3, & 4]) for the furniture. This was previously ordered a month in advancewith the furniture so when I attached to the furniture whip I just tied intothe colors the furniture guy told me he used (i.e. my blue c phase in the j boxto his black in the whip for his #1 duplex). The inspector here in Sunrise isasking for the phasing in the furniture to match the buildings colors (i.e. myc phase to go on the blue wire of the whip their #3 duplex). I never had thisissue before, and it?s holding up a final and the furniture guy can?t get thenew duplex?s to match until next week. Is that the way the code reads once thecircuitry leaves building power and in running through a manufactured product. Ifso I have been doing this wrong for over 20 years?
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What you have described here is called 8 wire electrofied system 4 hots, 2 neutral, and 2 grounds. (1 hot pink color, 1 neutral white with pink strip, and 1 green with yel. strip consider to be dedicated isolated circuit). When we have a single stand alone cube or 2, it is a common parctice to tie all hot wires to 1 incoming hot, all neutal wires to 1 neutral, the same with grounds. Doing so will give the obtion to use any receptacle #ed 1, 2, 3, 4, or a, b, c, d associated with that system. The inspector does not know what he is talking about. Ask for code reference.
 
Sounds like something is lacking from the description.

Here's what I understand the OP is describing:
General cubicle circuits: Black, Red, Blue, White, Green (5 wires)
Isolated circuit: Hot, Neutral, ground (3 wires)

I imagine the building is using another 'blue' circuit to supply the (black) hot for the isolated circuit.

Re-ID the building wire, and you're marking a 'blue' circuit black. Re-ID the cubes and ... well, you can't really mark the wire in every place where it's accessible. It's just not practical. In either case, you're setting the stage for two 'blue' wires to have a 208v potential between them, rather than the expectd 0v. That's setting the stage for a dangerous misunderstanding. You're creating a hazard.

Of greater concern, to me, are the two green wires. It can get confusing, and it's all too easy to accidentally "un-isolate" the isolated ground by bonding it to a box somewhere. If the AHJ is going to get picky about color coding, then I would expect him to ask for the IG ground wire to ne green with a yellow stripe.
 
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