warren meier
Member
- Location
- spencer iowa
- Occupation
- electrical contractor
where can I find plenum rated receptacles for above a dropped ceiling which is used for a return air?
plenum rated receptacles
- Thread starter warren meier
- Start date
- Status
texie
Senior Member
- Location
- Fort Collins, Colorado
- Occupation
- Electrician, Contractor, Inspector
You can just use a regular receptacle. Problem is the code does not let you use it as you can't have flexible cords above a drop ceiling.
Coppersmith
Senior Member
- Location
- Tampa, FL, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Except for temporary use like maintenance.
warren meier
Member
- Location
- spencer iowa
- Occupation
- electrical contractor
this I know...however our state inspector informed me there is a product out there that encases the cordand receptacle therefore legal
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I thought wall-warts were okay since they have no line-voltage cord.
If your state inspector finds it let us know. Besides the issue with flexible cords above any ceiling very few things are allowed in plenums.
Roger
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
Maybe the inspector was talking about this? Still wouldn’t make it compliant.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
In my opinion, 300.22(C)(3) prohibits standard receptacles in a "plenum ceiling"
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
Required in Chicago for plenum ceilings along with flexible metal tubing (Article 360)...one of the few places you ever see flexible metal tubing
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
That’s kinda weird combination! Many years ago we wired a mall in Charleston, SC, I believe, and they would not allow MC cable. Doesn’t Chicago also require houses to be wired in type ac or mc type wiring method? NM not allowed?
hbiss
EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
- Location
- Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
- Occupation
- EC
hillbilly1 said:
Why would anybody even think to use a plastic box in a return air space??
hillbilly1 said:
Not quite! They require EMT!!
-Hal
Last edited:
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
Is a space above the ceiling used for a return air really a plenum?
- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
No, in that it is not constructed for the primary purpose of routing air, but the code explicitly applies some plenum rules to those "other environmental air" spaces.
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hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
I did a house in emt, the electrician that the builder normally used couldn’t run conduit, so I did it as a favor. Not easy in wood construction. The home owner requested it because he wanted to be able to pull out any wire that might go “bad” and pull in new. LOL!
hbiss
EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
- Location
- Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
- Occupation
- EC
We had an EC on here many years ago from the Chicago area. We had this same discussion and he posted pictures of some of his residential rough-ins with EMT. He claimed that he could complete it almost as fast as someone else using NM. I believe multiple pulls and smart conduit routing eliminated a lot of individual NM runs.
Needless to say his work was a work of art.
-Hal
Needless to say his work was a work of art.
-Hal
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
If I had to wire a house in EMT, there would be mostly single vertical runs and lots of J-boxes in the attic and crawl spaces.
- Location
- Bremerton, Washington
- Occupation
- Master Electrician
Thats what electricians call it, but the plenum is inside a metal air duct. NEC finally got it right a couple of code cycles ago and called it other space for environmental air. Just go to your wholesale house and ask for some "other space for environmental air" rated cable
- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
A plenum does not have to be metal or metal lined, although they often are. It just has to constructed separate from other spaces for the primary purpose of carrying air.
If you ran two partitions from a dropped ceiling to the structural ceiling to provide a narrow path down the middle of the room to which all the return air vents in the dropped ceiling were connected, you would arguably have constructed a plenum. But the entire undivided dropped ceiling space is not going to be a plenum, even if you used a metal ceiling.
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Coppersmith
Senior Member
- Location
- Tampa, FL, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I was called to a condo where the owners wanted to separate the bathroom vanity light from the bath fan. They were wired together. I was imagining having to tear up the drywall to accomplish this, but when I opened the switchbox I was amazed to see it was piped with ENT. Using the ground as a string, I just pulled in a single additional conductor and a replacement ground then replaced the switch with a double switch. Voila!
hbiss
EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
- Location
- Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
- Occupation
- EC
You're no fun. And suppose there was no basement and an inaccessible attic?
Wish we had those pictures!
-Hal
- Status