Pig tails.

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Alex electrical student

Alex electrical student

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Is pig tailing required by the code? I looked around and some contractors don't pig tail at all. Some don't pig tail for residential, but pigtail for commercial. Others pig tail on every job. Who is correct? I looked in the code book and couldn't find any thing on the pig tailing.
 
Alex, The neutral conductor on MWBC's must be " pig tailed " resd. or comm.

There may be other cases, but IMO, not the NEC, why not do them all!

side note: Im not that experinced in resd.
 
Pigtailing is an aquired taste. It is mandatory for mwbcs neutrals because if you remove the device and break the neutral with loads on it you will surely smoke something. Many commercial electricians are trained to pigtail all devices. Some are not. I prefer to not pigtail except where mandatory because it is an extra step and a waste of wirenuts. Many disagree with this but hey that is what makes us different. I prefer to Cowtail myself. Why should pigs get all of the glory.
 
The cow's gone wild on us again! Iffins' ya not likin me pitailin - perhaps ya like me when we play "Who let the dogs out"?
 
As in the case of mc cable some prefer to pigtail the ground wires directly to the box And use self grounding receptacles.
And some prefer to pigtail the ground wires directly to the receptacle.
And some prefer to pigtail the wires to both the box and the receptacle.
 
quogueelectric said:
As in the case of mc cable some prefer to pigtail the ground wires directly to the box And use self grounding receptacles.
And some prefer to pigtail the ground wires directly to the receptacle.
And some prefer to pigtail the wires to both the box and the receptacle.
Click to expand...

There is no NEC compliant way that you can avoid connecting the EGC to the box.
 
iwire said:
There is no NEC compliant way that you can avoid connecting the EGC to the box.
Click to expand...

If your conduit is acting as your EGC but you choose to pull a separate, can you run that to your device only w/o attaching it also at the box. And isn't it allowable, if your conduit acts as your grounding means, to ground the device from a pigtail at the box. I ask because I do not run enouch metal conduit to stay on top of this one. Even thought using the conduit as EGC is allowed, I would prefer not to put my faith in the connections and connect a separate conductor to everything.
 
Alex electrical student said:
Is pig tailing required by the code? I looked around and some contractors don't pig tail at all. Some don't pig tail for residential, but pigtail for commercial. Others pig tail on every job. Who is correct? I looked in the code book and couldn't find any thing on the pig tailing.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure your question has a direct answer. I do know that there is an old practice, commercial and residential, of taking the hot conductor and striping some insulation about mid way up, and wrapping one screw of a device, and then taking the same conductor and landing on a screw of another device. Hence, no pigtail. Yeah - I don't like this method. :mad:
 
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