solid vs stranded thhn

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peter d said:
Both. :p

I like to mix solid and stranded, because having a few solid conductors makes it easier to push the wires through the raceway.
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If your "pushing" your wires through the raceway, evidently your not pulling near the amount or length of control wires that I do in a run. :)


JAP>
 
We found what we thought was #1 hard drawn bare solid copper in an overhead installation at a junior high football field. Had been there for decades and in good condition.

In general I like solid for commercial branch circuitry. When it comes to motors, controls and instrumentation it's all stranded for me, and seems to be so in most industrial installs.
 
jap said:
If your "pushing" your wires through the raceway, evidently your not pulling near the amount or length of control wires that I do in a run. :)


JAP>
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Nope, I'm not running control wires. I'm mostly talking about pushing 20-30' of wire between outlets and lights in the typical work I do.
 
Trying to push a receptacle into a box filled with solid #12 is torture. Sometimes I cut the solid as short as possible and pigtail it with stranded just to make it easier.

Also I keep a roll of #4 solid on the truck to run to ground rods.
 
Aleman said:
I am interested in your opinions as far as using solid
for motor connections. I do realize that motors are wound with solid but the working ends are usually stranded.
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Not really a fair comparison. For common motors (below 100 Hp) the 'solid' wire is usually pretty small gauge (20-24 AWG) and if more cross section is needed than multiple conductors are used in parallel. In essence you have stranded wire, where the strands are separately insulated.

In large motors, large gauge solid wire is used, often square or rectangular wire. But in this case the coils are pre-formed into shapes that fit into the stator without much bending. In this case you are dealing with something that is more like a bus bar, not a wire.

Then after the stator is formed the entire thing is usually dipped in insulating varnish, making the whole thing a single solid mass.

So the discussion of solid versus stranded on the outside of the motor is rather different than the solid wire _inside_ the motor.

-Jon
 
LarryFine said:
Rods only require #6. Other grounds require #4 for 200a services.
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Hmmm, Table 250.66 says for a 2/0 CU or 4/0 AL a #4 CU is required. I guess I never noticed the exception in 250.66(A) that allows a #6. I'm pretty sure I had an inspector tell me it had to be #4 a few years back. So I guess I'll change to #6 and save some money on copper and then spend the savings plus a lot more to argue with an inspector later. :)
 
Coppersmith said:
Hmmm, Table 250.66 says for a 2/0 CU or 4/0 AL a #4 CU is required. I guess I never noticed the exception in 250.66(A) that allows a #6. I'm pretty sure I had an inspector tell me it had to be #4 a few years back. So I guess I'll change to #6 and save some money on copper and then spend the savings plus a lot more to argue with an inspector later. :)
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To be more accurate, 250.66(A) is not an exception, it is a straight forward rule.

Roger
 
jumper said:
TN by chance? I visited one over there when I was visiting the Biltmore and went for a drive.

Edit: I just looked at a map, the one I stopped at was in NC near the border with TN.
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That would be Harrah's Cherokee Casino.

Roger
 
JFletcher said:
How many tens of miles of cable did you use just for security? Do they hard pipe all of it and use shielded wire?
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The low voltage was a completely separate sub contract and was sizable, I don't know how much wire was used.

Roger
 
roger said:
The low voltage was a completely separate sub contract and was sizable, I don't know how much wire was used.

Roger
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Usually is on both accounts. I was asking as I recently saw a video on casino security, and the casino they featured had over 1000 cameras.

That's 2-3x the amount of total v/d/v your average 80-100 room hotel has (250-500 drops), which can have upward of 20 miles of cable in it.
 
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