EGC Color Coded

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FaradayFF

Senior Member
Location
California
Hello,
The NEC allows using green color tape to mark EGC where it is accessible for #6AWG and larger. Has anyone done this before - I'd imagine you would apply this method if you had a single spool of wire that you had used for phase conductors and you wanted to utilize the same wire for EGC since you lacked green coloured insulation. Is this done all the time in the industry? It seems like this method would be preferred over stripping the insulation of conductor(time consuming?) and bundling phase and bare conductors together and running them in a conduit. I'd be concerned about potential damage to the insulation of phase conductor due to abrasion when pulling the bundle.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
EE
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
It is not as easy as you think sometimes to get green insulated conductors above number 6 in size. Usually about all you can get easily is black. I'm not saying it's impossible to get other colors, just not as easy. A band of green tape on the end is fine for remarking it.
 

Carultch

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
Hello,
The NEC allows using green color tape to mark EGC where it is accessible for #6AWG and larger. Has anyone done this before - I'd imagine you would apply this method if you had a single spool of wire that you had used for phase conductors and you wanted to utilize the same wire for EGC since you lacked green coloured insulation. Is this done all the time in the industry? It seems like this method would be preferred over stripping the insulation of conductor(time consuming?) and bundling phase and bare conductors together and running them in a conduit. I'd be concerned about potential damage to the insulation of phase conductor due to abrasion when pulling the bundle.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
EE

If you strip off the insulation, it doesn't automatically become a listed bare conductor that can serve as the EGC in its own right. One essential difference is that bare conductors tend to have a coarser stranding pattern than its insulated counterpart, and won't stay together as well as the bare wire.

It is the industry norm to use black as the blank canvas for conductors that are allowed to be re-identified with tape at terminations. Using an already reserved color like white or green as the starting color and re-taping it would be asking for trouble.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
If you strip off the insulation, it doesn't automatically become a listed bare conductor that can serve as the EGC in its own right. One essential difference is that bare conductors tend to have a coarser stranding pattern than its insulated counterpart, and won't stay together as well as the bare wire.

It is the industry norm to use black as the blank canvas for conductors that are allowed to be re-identified with tape at terminations. Using an already reserved color like white or green as the starting color and re-taping it would be asking for trouble.
White is permitted to be re-identified to be used as something other than a grounded conductor only where the conductor is part of a cable assembly. Green is not permitted to be re-identified as something other than a grounding conductor.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
Hello,
The NEC allows using green color tape to mark EGC where it is accessible for #6AWG and larger. Has anyone done this before - I'd imagine you would apply this method if you had a single spool of wire that you had used for phase conductors and you wanted to utilize the same wire for EGC since you lacked green coloured insulation. Is this done all the time in the industry? It seems like this method would be preferred over stripping the insulation of conductor(time consuming?) and bundling phase and bare conductors together and running them in a conduit. I'd be concerned about potential damage to the insulation of phase conductor due to abrasion when pulling the bundle.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
EE
Where you strip the insulation off to re-identify a conductor as a grounding conductor, you don't strip the complete length of the conductor. You only strip the exposed length at the termination points. It is not common to use that method. Green tape is much quicker and cheaper and is permitted by the code.
 

jaggedben

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
Occupation
Solar and Energy Storage Installer
Hello,
The NEC allows using green color tape to mark EGC where it is accessible for #6AWG and larger. Has anyone done this before - I'd imagine you would apply this method if you had a single spool of wire that you had used for phase conductors and you wanted to utilize the same wire for EGC since you lacked green coloured insulation. Is this done all the time in the industry? It seems like this method would be preferred over stripping the insulation of conductor(time consuming?) and bundling phase and bare conductors together and running them in a conduit. I'd be concerned about potential damage to the insulation of phase conductor due to abrasion when pulling the bundle.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
EE
To answer your question...

People use tape to mark large conductors all the time. Green and all other colors.
 
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