Hot wire phasing does it matter?

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mark32

Senior Member
Location
Currently in NJ
Lets hypothetically say you were to pipe an entire residential home. When it comes time to pull both two wire and three wire home runs would you "Phase" them L1 and L2? Do they even need to be colored in such an install? I've never even thought about it before this thread.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Lets hypothetically say you were to pipe an entire residential home. When it comes time to pull both two wire and three wire home runs would you "Phase" them L1 and L2? Do they even need to be colored in such an install? I've never even thought about it before this thread.

If I were to do that, the 15 and 20 amp circuits especially would be more than two wire or three wire home runs. There may be 6 or 8 different colors plus grounded conductors in a lot of the raceways. Why do we care which conductors are L1 and which are L2 when all that really matters is which 2 go with a particular neutral on MWBC's.
 

mark32

Senior Member
Location
Currently in NJ
Hi kwired, I agree with you 100%. I'm just trying to look at this from a code/inspector standpoint, I don't believe there is anything requiring us to do so in this case.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Hi kwired, I agree with you 100%. I'm just trying to look at this from a code/inspector standpoint, I don't believe there is anything requiring us to do so in this case.

There is not, unless you have more than one voltage system on the premesis. Even then there is no color code, except for grounded/grounding conductors. You can identify system and phase any way you desire.
 

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
Hi kwired, I agree with you 100%. I'm just trying to look at this from a code/inspector standpoint, I don't believe there is anything requiring us to do so in this case.
Is that a black Les Paul Custom in your avatar picture? I have one as well. :)
 

ActionDave

Chief Moderator
Staff member
Location
Durango, CO, 10 h 20 min from the winged horses.
Occupation
Licensed Electrician
Lets hypothetically say you were to pipe an entire residential home. When it comes time to pull both two wire and three wire home runs would you "Phase" them L1 and L2? Do they even need to be colored in such an install? .....
Just finished a house where that is what we did.

If I were to do that, the 15 and 20 amp circuits especially would be more than two wire or three wire home runs. There may be 6 or 8 different colors plus grounded conductors in a lot of the raceways.....
This is exactly the way we did it. It made it very easy to keep track of special use circuits.

The inspector told me that I should not have used orange as it was only for high legs. I told him he was nuts.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Just finished a house where that is what we did.

This is exactly the way we did it. It made it very easy to keep track of special use circuits.

The inspector told me that I should not have used orange as it was only for high legs. I told him he was nuts.

If you don't have a high leg orange is not reserved by code for anything. Next project he inspects run all orange wherever possible. Use tape, numbers, etc to identify them, maybe his head will implode.
 
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