Section 300.14

Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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There was a change in this section to clarify the concept of 6" of wire in a switch box.

300.14 Length of Free Conductors at Outlets, Junctions, and Switch Points

At least 150 mm (6 in.) of free conductor, measured from the point in the box where it emerges from its raceway or cable sheath, shall be left at each outlet, junction, and switch point for splices or the connection of luminaires or devices. The 150 mm (6 in.) free conductor shall be permitted to be spliced or unspliced. Where the opening to an outlet, junction, or switch point is less than 200 mm (8 in.) in any dimension, each conductor shall be long enough to extend at least 75 mm (3 in.) outside the opening.
Exception:
Conductors that are not spliced or terminated at the outlet, junction, or switch point shall not be required to comply with 300.14.
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In the following video this guy seems to say that you can splice one wire and make it longer but you can't put 2 conductors together and extend with one wire. It makes no sense. He said he got his info from Paul

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Dennis Alwon said:
In the following video this guy seems to say that you can splice one wire and make it longer but you can't put 2 conductors together and extend with one wire.
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That is correct . What is shown in the first box on the left with the EGC's is a violation because the short EGC is less than 6". That would need to be extended first to be at least 6" long then spliced to the other EGC.
 
infinity said:
That is correct . What is shown in the first box on the left with the EGC's is a violation because the short EGC is less than 6". That would need to be extended first to be at least 6" long then spliced to the other EGC.
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That makes no sense to me. The hot conductors must individually be spliced to 6" then you can tie them together???? Why? Don't get me wrong, when I wire I leave at least 6" before I splice. I hate wires cut short.

If they are short then I don't see why splicing 2 short wires together and adding another ire to makes it 6", would be an issue
 
Dennis Alwon said:
If they are short then I don't see why splicing 2 short wires together and adding another ire to makes it 6", would be an issue
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Each individual conductor needs to be at least 6" long. If it is too short then that individual conductor can be extended.
 
infinity said:
Each individual conductor needs to be at least 6" long. If it is too short then that individual conductor can be extended.
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Rob, I understand that each conductor needs to be extended. I don't understand what difference it makes when making up a device if 2 wires are spliced together to make one. You are basically extending two wires to connect them back to one.

I guess if that were allowed then people would purposely leave wires short. Imo, this rule should only be used when someone comes along and nicks the conductor with a rotozip.

I was thinking if 2 wire got cut short accidentally then why would I need to make both long just to tie them together. I guess that is too confusing to get across in the nec.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I don't understand what difference it makes when making up a device if 2 wires are spliced together to make one.
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For ease of future remake, where the two wires may not be spliced together in the future? That lets you unmake the box and have 6" of each separate conductor (possible with a splice) to start over with.

Cheers, Wayne
 
Correct me if I am missing something here, but I thought a part of the point was to ensure you weren't working with your fingers and tools in the box but working on the conductor outside of the box since it extends 3in out. I also thought it was so that receptacles could be pulled out of the box and have the wires removed without needing to try and use a needle nose in the box to reinstall a new one.

But I am just an engineer so I don't.

Maybe it makes no difference.
 
I also assume this applies to more than residential where some gutters, splice boxes, etc.

If you spliced the two wires to one with some of the larger boxes you might end up with a puzzle trying to get access to the original wire, too short to be pulled out of the box, and it being incapable of being reworked.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Imo, this rule should only be used when someone comes along and nicks the conductor with a rotozip.
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Rotozips and don't forget non-reversable wire connectors that people just cut off,
When I started out it was pretty much standard for house ropers to cut the equipment grounds as short as possible other than one, then use a non-removable crimp such as these we called them 'buchanan's', there is a trick to undoing them with a side cutter, but is does not always work, so if a 1-gang switch box gets removed for say a new 2-gang on a remodel, you end up seeing grounds cut even shorter.

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Before I retired I still used those on the equipment grounding conductor only. If you use your stakon tool you can still get them open but it is a pita.
 
I got an idea.
Don't cut the wires short, and, quit twisting ground wires together and cutting them short.
Not sure who thought that was ever a great idea to begin with.

Also, I never understood the advantage of using "greeners".
If your going to use a wirenut on the EGC why not use the same type you're already using for the other conductors?

Oh well,,

Jap>
 
jap said:
I got an idea.
Don't cut the wires short, and, quit twisting ground wires together and cutting them short.
Not sure who thought that was ever a great idea to begin with.

Also, I never understood the advantage of using "greeners".
If your going to use a wirenut on the EGC why not use the same type you're already using for the other conductors?

Oh well,,

Jap>
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If by greeners you mean like the ideal model 92 where you have a hole in the top to lead one ground wire out, I always thought that the main advantage is a quicker install just cut one of the romexes slightly longer on rough in.
Either way any type of wirenut (or easily reversible wago connector) is preferable to the crimp sleeves as you can reverse it if you need to change the box or do a continuity check or for whatever reason.
Then you don't have people cutting the grounds short because they can't undo the sleeve crimp (buchanan) or inspectors saying your not using the correct tool to crimp them.
 
The video makes it clear that this is an informal interpretation of the code. Ultimately the interpretation that matters will be the one of your AHJ. Depending on the actual situation (box size, number of conductors in box) extending individual conductors with additional wire nuts just to splice them back together downstream before the device might not leave enough physical room in the box for the device to even fit.

It seems to me that allowing the conductors to be spliced in the first place is a fix, and not intended to be a well, intentional or deliberate method to reach the required length. In that case I would perform the fix as well as possible while minimizing damage to finishes and expense. Within the interpretation of my AHJ of course.

In cases where it would create additional issues to do otherwise I would tend to agree with Dennis that extending two conductors with one wire nut would make better sense than extending two with two and then still adding a third wire nut at the splice.
 
JMR Construction said:
The video makes it clear that this is an informal interpretation of the code. Ultimately the interpretation that matters will be the one of your AHJ. Depending on the actual situation (box size, number of conductors in box) extending individual conductors with additional wire nuts just to splice them back together downstream before the device might not leave enough physical room in the box for the device to even fit.
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I agree this may add additional wire nuts in the box but I don't see this as being open to interpretation. All it says is that each conductor must meet the minimum length requirement. If one or more do not then they can be individually extended via a splice to meet the minimum length. Since wire nuts do not count towards box fill they don't change anything regarding the number of conductors permitted within the box.

From Mike Holt:
300.14 Length of Free Conductors at Outlets, Junctions and Switch Points.

New Language clarifies that the required 6 in. of free conductor can be spliced.

This has been a point of contention for a long time, and now we have an answer-you can use spliced conductors to meet the requirement for 6 in. of free conductor in this rule. In the past some AHJs read this rule to mean that conductors needed to be replaced if they were damaged or too short. Now it is clear that you can just splice them.
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