Red conductor connected to terminal bar....

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tonype said:
....in the main panel...is this legit? Does wrapping with white tape "cure" it if it is a problem?
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I assume you mean with the neutral bar. For wire sizes 6 gauge and smaller, they cannot be reidentified white, 200.6. if they are above 6 gauge, they can be reidentified with tape, see 200.6 (B).

Red wires running to a neutral bar is a violation.

The allowance for reidentifying wire is at the time of installation, and all terminations must also be reidentified elsewhere. if the wire is existing technically it is a violation to reidentify them with tape after the fact, such as changing a 240-volt 3 wire oven feed to a 120 volt circuit.
 
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JFletcher said:
I assume you mean with the neutral bar. For wire sizes 6 gauge and smaller, they cannot be reidentified white, 200.6. if they are above 6 gauge, they can be reidentified with tape, see 200.6 (B).

Red wires running to a neutral bar is a violation.
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There's an exception under 200.6(E) that allows white tape to be applied on multiconductors.
 
Isaiah said:
There's an exception under 200.6(E) that allows white tape to be applied on multiconductors.
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Yes, there are two exceptions under 200.6 (E). Neither of them permit you to remark an existing conductor even is in a multi conductor cable.

An inspector may not have an issue with somebody putting white tape or paint or whatever on an existing black or red cable to make it a neutral, however in my opinion it is a code violation in that section as written
 
JFletcher said:
Yes, there are two exceptions under 200.6 (E). Neither of them permit you to remark an existing conductor even is in a multi conductor cable.

An inspector may not have an issue with somebody putting white tape or paint or whatever on an existing black or red cable to make it a neutral, however in my opinion it is a code violation in that section as written
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We do it all the time for new construction in petro-chem facilities. Not sure about an existing conductor, but then again, this was not mentioned by the OP.
 
Isaiah said:
We do it all the time for new construction in petro-chem facilities. Not sure about an existing conductor, but then again, this was not mentioned by the OP.
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In new construction it is fine. The language that trips it up is "at the time of installation". What you are doing is fine, remarking existing conductors as neutrals is not.

Though Tony did not expressly imply the wiring is existing, I took his question to mean that they were and that he was looking at a panel with red wires going to the neutral bar.

That phrase "at the time of installation"is significant because it precludes reidentifying as neutral at a later date. I personally think that 200.6 is a bad code section with regards to remarking. It is probably overlooked as far as that phrase is concerned, and I have seen many a wire reidentified 20 years or more after the initial installation as a neutral.

of course, it would be difficult for an inspector to say what the circuit was originally used for and reidentified at some later date... One could even say the original tape was trashy so they just replaced it. There was no original tape? Well that's a curiosity...:angel:

If I had to guess as to the reasoning for allowing it on some wire sizes and not on others, I would say that it is much more likely the smaller wires are to a branch circuit and have numerous terminations everywhere, though if that were the case one could simply allow remarking on small conductors that serve individual branch circuits. Maybe a worthwhile request for the 2020 NEC...
 
I think it is a crazy section and would have no problem sliding a piece of white shrink wrap on it, and using my hair dryer... then let the say it was not white already...
 
JFletcher said:
In new construction it is fine. The language that trips it up is "at the time of installation". What you are doing is fine, remarking existing conductors as neutrals is not.

Though Tony did not expressly imply the wiring is existing, I took his question to mean that they were and that he was looking at a panel with red wires going to the neutral bar.
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You are correct
 
Isaiah said:
There's an exception under 200.6(E) that allows white tape to be applied on multiconductors.
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Next question is what other conductors are in the cable? If there is already a white then that should be used for grounded conductor. There are some cables out there with no white conductor - I think you can re-identify any conductor in them other than a green, which must be used for EGC, with white if you are needing a grounded conductor in that situation.

What I have seen is old three wire NM cable without a ground (black, white, red) and someone uses the red for EGC - landing on the neutral in a service panel would be acceptable, but it needs to be green or bare, and I don't think there is any provisions allowing re-identifying an EGC smaller than 4 AWG with green tape or other markings.
 
I’m there to upgrade a service entrance. I see a red wire on the neutral bar and determine that it has been used as an EG since the day it was installed thirty years ago. Do I ID it as an EQ at both ends by stripping it out, wrapping a piece of green tape on it, or spend three days fishing a new compliant cable to the third floor? Let me think about this a minute.
 
ptonsparky said:
I’m there to upgrade a service entrance. I see a red wire on the neutral bar and determine that it has been used as an EG since the day it was installed thirty years ago. Do I ID it as an EQ at both ends by stripping it out, wrapping a piece of green tape on it, or spend three days fishing a new compliant cable to the third floor? Let me think about this a minute.
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My thoughts as well. If you aren't messing with the branch circuit but just replacing the panel some things go back the way they started out.

I can even remember one time landing old green type TW conductors on a breaker, only because they were on a breaker before changing out the panel.
 
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